ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1651463
This article is part of the Research TopicEnvironmental Impact of MedicinesView all 4 articles
Cost-Effectiveness of Iruplinalkib versus Crizotinib in First-Line Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase-Positive Advanced Non-small-cell Lung Cancer Patients in China
Provisionally accepted
- China Pharmaceutical University School of International Pharmaceutical Business, Nanjing, China
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Background The recently completed INSPIRE trial demonstrated that iruplinalkib improved progression-free survival and intracranial antitumor activity compared with crizotinib in patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) -positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objective of this study was to determine the potential cost-effectiveness of iruplinalkib vs. crizotinib in the Chinese healthcare setting. Methods A cost-effectiveness model was developed using the partition survival method, with three health states: progression-free survival, progressive disease, and death. Data from the INSPIRE trial were used to estimate progression-free and overall survival. Costs included drug treatment, disease management, and adverse events management. Drug costs and utilities were the main drivers of the model in the deterministic sensitivity analysis. Results Treatment with iruplinalkib versus crizotinib resulted in a gain of 0.55 life-years, 2.11 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and an incremental cost of $4,325.55, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $2,048.03/QALY. Drug costs and utilities were the main drivers of the model in the deterministic sensitivity analysis. From the probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA), iruplinalkib had a 100% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of $13,447.89/QALY. Conclusions Compared to crizotinib, iruplinalkib is a cost-effective therapy for treatment-naïve patients with ALK-positive NSCLC.
Keywords: iruplinalkib, Cost-Effectiveness, non-small cell lung cancer, China, crizotinib, Anaplastic lymphoma kinase
Received: 21 Jun 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Lu, Dai, Wang, Zhou, Lu and Chang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Feng Chang, cpucf@163.com
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