Health economics and RSV.

An economic analysis was performed in Spain to evaluate the efficiency (cost-effectiveness) of palivizumab in preventing severe RSV infection in premature infants with GA 32-35 and two or more risk factors (RF). The design was a decision tree model using data from the scientific literature and the FLIP I and FLIP II studies IRIS Study Group. The main effectiveness measure was quality-adjusted life years (QALY) gained from both the National Health System (NHS) and societal perspectives. Prophylaxis with palivizumab was found to produce an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of 13,849euro/QALY from the NHS perspective, and 4,605euro/QALY from the societal perspective. Palivizumab is a cost-effective therapy as prophylaxis against RSV in infants with GA 32-35 and two or more RF. Its use is efficient from the NHS perspective, since the cost of a QALY, even in the least favourable scenarios, is lower than the threshold of 30,000euro/QALY considered socially acceptable in Europe.