Cost-effectiveness of combined interferon and ribavirin versus interferon alone.

Several decision analysis, computer-generated models developed to study the cost effectiveness of current treatment for chronic hepatitis C appear to have produced similar results. They indicate that IFN monotherapy and the combination of IFN plus ribavirin treatment have calculated cost-effectiveness ratios that either fall within the bounds of other widely accepted current therapies in medicine or are cost-saving. This cost effectiveness has been shown for the treatment of previously untreated patients, for the re-treatment of patients who experience relapse after an initial course of IFN monotherapy, and for the re-treatment of those patients who did not respond to IFN monotherapy. Although targeting treatment to patients most likely to respond will improve cost effectiveness, the benefits of treatment are such that even empiric IFN monotherapy, without liver biopsy, HCV RNA quantitation, or HCV genotyping, has an acceptable cost effectiveness. Although not studied, empiric combination therapy might result in even further cost efficiencies.