Sehested TSG, et al. - In this study, researchers determined the cost-effectiveness of adding canakinumab (150 mg, administered every 3 months) to standard of care for the secondary prevention of major cardiovascular events over a range of potential costs. The main outcomes and measures included the lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), discounted at 3% per year. In order to estimate costs and outcomes, they developed a state-transition Markov model by projecting rates of recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), coronary revascularization, infection, and lung cancer with and without canakinumab treatment. For the purposes of this analysis, they also constructed a hypothetical cohort of patients after MI aged 61 years with an hs-CRP level of ≥ 2 mg/L. According to findings, adding canakinumab to standard-of-care treatment improved life expectancy (11.31 to 11.36 years), QALYs (9.37 to 9.50) and costs ($242,000 to $1,074,000), for an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $6.4 million per QALY gained. However, prices would have to be reduced by > 98% in order to meet the $100,000 per QALY willingness-to-pay threshold. As such, the investigators concluded that canakinumab is not cost-effective at current US prices for the prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients with a history of MI.