Molecular Dx Significance 7/10

Systematic Review Finds Most Pharmacogenomic Tests Are Cost-Effective

This systematic review of 108 cost-effectiveness studies covering 39 drugs with CPIC guidelines found that 71% of evaluations showed pharmacogenomic testing to be cost-effective or cost-saving. Clopidogrel testing had the strongest evidence (22 of 23 studies favourable), followed by HLA testing for abacavir, allopurinol, and carbamazepine. The findings provide laboratory directors and health-system leaders with robust economic justification for implementing preemptive pharmacogenomic testing programmes.

The original study

Cost Effectiveness of Pharmacogenetic Testing for Drugs with Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) Guidelines: A Systematic Review.

Authors
Morris SA, Alsaidi AT, Verbyla A, Cruz A, Macfarlane C, Bauer J, et al.
Journal
Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Type
Systematic Review, Journal Article
PMID
36149409
Read the original study →

Original abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the evidence on cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenetic (PGx)-guided treatment for drugs with Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines. A systematic review was conducted using multiple biomedical literature databases from inception to June 2021. Full articles comparing PGx-guided with nonguided treatment were included for data extraction. Quality of Health Economic Studies (QHES) was used to assess robustness of each study (0-100). Data are reported using descriptive statistics. Of 108 studies evaluating 39 drugs, 77 (71%) showed PGx testing was cost-effective (CE) (N = 48) or cost-saving (CS) (N = 29); 21 (20%) were not CE; 10 (9%) were uncertain. Clopidogrel had the most articles (N = 23), of which 22 demonstrated CE or CS, followed by warfarin (N = 16), of which 7 demonstrated CE or CS. Of 26 studies evaluating human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing for abacavir (N = 8), allopurinol (N = 10), or carbamazepine/phenytoin (N = 8), 15 demonstrated CE or CS. Nine of 11 antidepressant articles demonstrated CE or CS. The median QHES score reflected high-quality studies (91; range 48-100). Most studies evaluating cost-effectiveness favored PGx testing. Limited data exist on cost-effectiveness of preemptive and multigene testing across disease states.