In the 20% and 40% prevalence IDU treatment scenarios, total costs are lower than in the ex/non-IDU scenario because of reductions in onward infections (leading to higher QALYs and reduced HCV-associated medical costs). The lower the baseline prevalence, the higher the QALY gain when treating IDUs, as treatments result

in a larger relative reduction in prevalence. In the 60% prevalence setting, costs are higher for treating IDU than ex/non-IDU; any beneficial prevention effects are offset by increased reinfection. The ANCOVA analysis in Supporting Fig. 5 shows that most variability (55%) in the ICER at 40% prevalence results from uncertainty in the cost parameters associated with care in the different HCV progression states. Additional variability is related to uncertainty in the mild SVR utility value (6%) and the transition probabilities from mild to moderate (6%), moderate to PD98059 cirrhosis (12%), cirrhosis to decompensated cirrhosis (5%), and IDU death (7%). Uncertainty in the uninfected IDU utility value and costs related to antiviral treatment contributes little to the variability in projections. Figure 4 shows that none of the univariate sensitivity analyses

on the ICER (treatment of IDUs as compared with no treatment) for the 40% prevalence scenario changed the optimal policy choice of treating IDU. Reducing the SVR among IDUs by one-quarter or half increases the ICER by nearly 50% and 150%, respectively. Treatment of an all genotype 1 population results in a higher ICER (+50%) due to a lower SVR, whereas treating all genotype 2/3 reduces the ICER (−60%). SCH772984 concentration Lowering the uninfected ex-IDU utility value (to 0.9) and average lifespan by 7 years results in an increase in ICER (+40%) for treating IDUs and MCE公司 the ICER for treating

ex-IDUs also increases. Using a health discount rate of 0% instead of 3.5% per year substantially reduces the ICER to just below zero (cost saving) due to increased savings from future infections averted. Treatment at a moderate stage is more cost-effective than treating at a mild stage, with an ICER of £1,082. Increasing the time horizon to 100 years reduces the ICER by nearly 50% due to further prevention and treatment benefits, with reductions stabilizing at 200 years due to discounting. The ICER for treatment of ex/non-IDUs as compared with no treatment stabilizes at about £4,200 for long time horizons. Changes in IDU treatment delivery costs, treatment rate, or treatment duration do not alter the ICER substantially. Our results suggest treating chronic HCV infection among injectors and ex- or noninjectors is cost-effective, but treating injectors may be more cost-effective when the chronic HCV prevalence among IDU is below 60% (about 80% antibody prevalence). In these scenarios, treating injectors results in more QALYs gained through the prevention of onward transmission than are lost from reinfection.