Original article The cost-effectiveness of OM-85 in managing respiratory tract infections in China

Objectives: To demonstrate the health economic impact of OM-85, a bacterial lysates based immunostimulant, for its approved indications in China. Methods: A cost-effectiveness decision tree model was constructed comparing OM-85 with the best supportive care/ placebo therapy for managing the acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and rhinosinusitis in the Chinese population. Clinical efficacy and adverse events (AE) data were included in the model based on a thorough literature review. All localized direct treatment costs, including drug cost, AE costs, and medical treatment costs for underlining diseases were included from a Chinese third party payer perspective. A Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) survey was conducted with 20 senior physicians specialized in respiratory, ENT, allergy, and immunology fields from tertiary hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenyang, and Wuhan to validate the local treatment costs. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated based on the above efficacy and cost information.