On 11 December, Dr Javier Mar, Prof. Myriam Soto-Gordoa and colleagues published an article in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, in which they investigated the cost-utility of the Souvenaid® dietary supplement in patients with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as classified by the International Working Group-1 criteria.
The LipiDiDiet clinical trial evaluated the efficacy of Souvenaid®, a dietary supplement drink, in prodromal AD. Although no improvement in the Neuropsychological Test Battery was observed, participants who received Souvenaid® performed better on the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) cognitive test, indicating some cognitive benefit from taking the dietary supplement for 2 years. In their Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, Dr Mar and colleagues aimed to assess the cost-utility of Souvenaid® compared to placebo in patients with prodromal AD, under the conditions applied in the LipiDiDiet trial. Creating a model to simulate the natural history of AD across the lifespan, the researchers calculated the economic cost (in EUR) and utility (in quality-adjusted life years/QALYs) of Souvenaid®, including direct and indirect costs such as social care costs and balancing these against the yearly cost of the diagnostic procedure (EUR2900/yr) and Souvenaid® (EUR1200/yr).
Analysis of the trial data showed a dementia progression rate of 41% in participants receiving placebo, compared to 34% in participants receiving Souvenaid®. The economic evaluation revealed that the treatment had a favourable cost-utility ratio, amounting to EUR22,743/QALY – lower than the willingness-to-pay threshold accepted by the Spanish government (EUR25,000). Together, the results indicate that treating patients with prodromal AD with Souvenaid® is cost-effective compared to placebo, under the conditions analysed in the LipiDiDiet trial.
https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-020-00737-9#Abs1