OBJECTIVES: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is associated with serious productivity impairment. Secukinumab, a fully human IL-17A inhibitor, provides sustained relief from PsA symptoms. This study estimates the societal economic benefits of using secukinumab instead of conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for treating patients with active PsA in Germany from 2016 to 2030.
METHODS: A Markov and a population model simulated the functional impairment of German PsA patients. The relationship between functional impairment and work productivity was used to determine the productivity difference in the populations treated with secukinumab and csDMARDs. The corresponding gains in productive time were allocated to paid and unpaid activities and valued according to gross value added (GVA). Since increased productivity has the potential to stimulate greater macroeconomic effects, indirect and induced GVA effects were calculated as well.
RESULTS: The use of secukinumab reduces the productivity impairment in the target population on average by over 13 percentage points. This difference could generate 32 million active and productive hours until the year 2030, which translates to GVA equivalents of €829 million. Including indirect and induced effects yield an economic estimate of €2.7 billion GVA equivalent.
CONCLUSIONS: The improvements in PsA-related functional impairment could lead to sizable productivity effects within the economy.
