Budget Impact Analysis of Biosimilar Bevacizumab for Patients With Cancer

A recent study indicated that the introduction of biosimilar bevacizumab-bvzr may provide substantial cost savings from the US payers’ perspective, allowing for the bevacizumab treatment to become accessible to more patients (Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2021; 19[4]:605-618. doi:10.1007/s40258-021-00637-5). 

Bevacizumab-bvzr, a biosimilar of the most widely used angiogenesis inhibitor for many advanced cancers, bevacizumab, was recently approved by the FDA. Jingyan Yang, PhD, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), Columbia University, New York, NY, and colleagues aimed to analyze the costliness of introducing bevacizumab-bvzr from US commercial and Medicare payer perspectives.

Dr Yang and colleagues built a budget impact model over a 5-year time horizon. Patients who were to be treated with bevacizumab for FDA-approved indications were the target audience for this study. Drug costs were based on average sales price and wholesale acquisition cost, and Drug dosing and duration were based on prescribing information and pivotal trial publications.

The budget impact plan was based on a hypothetical 10-million-member health plan where authors estimated that 503 and 723 patients treated with bevacizumab in year 1 and year 5, respectively. With an assumed annual market shift of 1.7%, 3.6%, 6.7%, 9.4%, and 11.9% to bevacizumab-bvzr, authors estimated an annual cost saving of $313,363 ($.003 per member per month) for a commercial payer, and $92,880 ($.001 per member per month) for Medicare in year 1, while in year 5, cost saving estimates were $7,030,924 ($.012 per member per month) for a commercial payer and $4,059,257 ($.007 per member per month) for Medicare.

“The introduction of biosimilar bevacizumab-bvzr was estimated to provide substantial cost savings for US payers, which would allow additional patients access to bevacizumab treatment,” concluded Dr Yang and colleagues.