A study published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine deemed the use of warfarin gene testing prior to warfarin treatment as not cost-effective because the researchers said at $170K per one life year free of serious bleed for a $400 test was about $120K too much. $50K is of course the "benchmark" produced out of thin air in 1985 for the value of dialysis for a 65 year old person.
Now some facts for the likely consumer:
About seven percent of all patients who take the drug warfarin to prevent blood clots in the legs will have a major bleeding episode within one year of treatment, according to researchers who analyzed 33 studies covering 10,757 patients. About one in eight will die, 10% will bleed inside the brain, and half of these patients with an intracranial bleed will die.
Now let's administer the drugwonks comparative effectiveness test to the authors of the study: Knowing this and assuming that a family member had to take warfarin to prevent blood clots, would you refuse to pay for a genetic test or give an AHIP thumbs up to denying coverage on the grounds that at $400 a pop, society and you are better off taking the risk of intercranial bleeding and death. And that's just the leg mind you. We haven't even gotten to other warfarin uses.
I thought we were all concerned about safety.
Now some facts for the likely consumer:
About seven percent of all patients who take the drug warfarin to prevent blood clots in the legs will have a major bleeding episode within one year of treatment, according to researchers who analyzed 33 studies covering 10,757 patients. About one in eight will die, 10% will bleed inside the brain, and half of these patients with an intracranial bleed will die.
Now let's administer the drugwonks comparative effectiveness test to the authors of the study: Knowing this and assuming that a family member had to take warfarin to prevent blood clots, would you refuse to pay for a genetic test or give an AHIP thumbs up to denying coverage on the grounds that at $400 a pop, society and you are better off taking the risk of intercranial bleeding and death. And that's just the leg mind you. We haven't even gotten to other warfarin uses.
I thought we were all concerned about safety.
