BACKGROUND:

Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia; prevalence increases with age and is associated with an increase in the risk of stroke and acute myocardial infarction. Anticoagulants are the treatment of choice to prevent thromboembolic complications and reduce infarction risk in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). The utilization of new oral anticoagulants such as dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban has increased, due to the safety profile of vitamin K antagonists.

METHODOLOGY:

A budget impact analysis comparing dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and warfarin in patients with NVAF was carried out from the third payer's perspective. Two scenarios were considered: In the first one, there is a relative decrease on dabigatran utilization compared with apixaban and rivaroxaban. In the other one, dabigatran utilization increased. In both scenarios, warfarin utilization remained constant.

RESULTS:

In the scenario in which dabigatran utilization decreased, there was a budget increase of $1,925,441,674 in the second year, and $3,670,041,761 in the third. In the increase of dabigatran utilization scenario, we find a global cost reduction of -$1,498,527,642 in the second year and -$2,119,252,605 in the third.

CONCLUSIONS:

Increase of dabigatran utilization throughout the time horizon is a cost saving decision on anticoagulant treatment of NVAF.

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