Polypill treatment for heart disease offers high value in low-income, underserved population

Polypill treatment for cardiovascular disease prevention is of high value in a low-income, underserved population, according to research published in JAMA Cardiology.

Ciaran N. Kohli-Lynch, Ph.D., from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues simulated clinical and economic outcomes of the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS) Polypill Trial from a health care sector perspective, adopting a time horizon of 10 years. In the base case analysis, polypill treatment was priced at $463 per year. An SCCS Polypill Trial-representative cohort of 100,000 individuals and all trial-eligible non-Hispanic Black adults was analyzed.

The researchers found that polypill treatment was projected to yield a mean of 1,190 additional quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) compared with usual care in the trial-representative cohort of 100,000 individuals, at a cost of about $10,152,000. The cost of polypill treatment was estimated at $8,560 per QALY gained compared with usual care, and had high value in 99% of simulations. Polypill treatment was estimated to be of high value and cost-saving when priced at $559 or less per year and $443 or less per year, respectively. Polypill treatment remained high value in almost all sensitivity analyses. Polypill treatment offered high value in a secondary analysis of 3,602,427 trial-eligible non-Hispanic Black U.S. adults, with an estimated cost of $13,400 per QALY gained.

“In this economic evaluation, using a computer simulation model, we projected that the polypill would be high value in this population if priced based on its component medications ($463 per year) and may reduce income-related health disparities,” the authors write.

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