Aim: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of a pharmacogenetic dosing algorithm versus a clinical dosing algorithm for coumarin anticoagulants in The Netherlands.
Materials & methods: A decision-analytic Markov model was used to analyze the cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenetic dosing of phenprocoumon and acenocoumarol versus clinical dosing.
Results: Pharmacogenetic dosing increased costs by €33 and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) by 0.001. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were €28,349 and €24,427 per QALY gained for phenprocoumon and acenocoumarol, respectively. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000 per QALY, the pharmacogenetic dosing algorithm was not likely to be cost effective compared with the clinical dosing algorithm.
Conclusion: Pharmacogenetic dosing improves health only slightly when compared with clinical dosing. However, availability of low-cost genotyping would make it a cost-effective option.
Keywords: acenocoumarol; atrial fibrillation; health economics; pharmacogenetics; phenprocoumon.