Economic evaluation of a pharmacogenetic dosing algorithm for coumarin anticoagulants in The Netherlands.

AIM To investigate the cost-effectiveness of a pharmacogenetic dosing algorithm versus a clinical dosing algorithm for coumarin anticoagulants in The Netherlands. MATERIALS & METHODS A decision-analytic Markov model was used to analyze the cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenetic dosing of phenprocoumon and acenocoumarol versus clinical dosing. RESULTS Pharmacogenetic dosing increased costs by €33 and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) by 0.001. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were €28,349 and €24,427 per QALY gained for phenprocoumon and acenocoumarol, respectively. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of €20,000 per QALY, the pharmacogenetic dosing algorithm was not likely to be cost effective compared with the clinical dosing algorithm. CONCLUSION Pharmacogenetic dosing improves health only slightly when compared with clinical dosing. However, availability of low-cost genotyping would make it a cost-effective option.