Cost-Effectiveness and Utility of Preemptive Pharmacogenomic Testing in Infants

Abstract

The goal of this work is to investigate whether preemptive pharmacogenetic testing offered in early childhood displays cost-efficiency and is an economically advantageous screening option to prevent adverse drug events. Pharmacogenomic testing has demonstrated clinical utility in many areas of healthcare. Yet due to the novelty of such tests, healthcare payers are reluctant to pay upfront for preemptive pharmacogenomic screening.

Cost efficiency of a clinical intervention has historically been measured by the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio expressed in quality adjusted life years or lived years – a comprise measure of the quality and quantity of life with and without the given intervention, defined by the difference in cost between two possible interventions, divided by the difference in their effect.

To date, only one study, which focused on adult patients and was conducted by O Alagoz et al, has evaluated the cost-effectiveness of one-time preemptive pharmacogenetic screening. Capitalizing on the data and principals described by O Alagoz et al, I developed a statistical predictive extrapolation model to assess cost-effectiveness for the early childhood group of patients. Additionally, other social factors such as household income and unemployment were evaluated for possible correlation. The outcomes of this case study demonstrated a significant cost-advantage of offering preemptive pharmacogenomic screening to the pediatric population. No conclusive correlation between household income and unemployment rate with adverse drugs events was detected.