Conclusion: Our Cost vs. Benefit analysis indicates that Calquence is appropriately priced.
Calquence offers moderate clinical benefit compared to Imbruvica, the standard of care in relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Calquence delivers a solid efficacy improvement, the effects of which flow through to improved mortality and morbidity. Combine these factors with somewhat favorable side effects and only slightly worse convenience and Calquence makes for a solid upgrade from Imbruvica. Calquence charges about $170,000/ year (WAC price) compared to Imbruvica’s $157,000. Given its level of clinical benefit, it is appropriately priced.
Our Cost vs. Benefit tool allows us to plot Calquence within a historical data set of new oncology drugs that have achieved favorable market access. Incremental cost is plotted along the y-axis and clinical benefit along the x-axis. Our historical data set shows a clear relationship between clinical benefit and cost, forming a cloud of data points. In general, drugs that fall within this cloud are priced appropriately given the level of clinical benefit they offer. Calquence lands just barely above the cloud, which means given the level of clinical benefit it provides, it may have been able to warrant a slightly higher price, but is well within the range of historical analogs.
In relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Calquence has shown promising 12 month data, but these data are not yet sufficiently mature to allow us to estimate its clinical benefit in that population. We will update our analyses as more mature data becomes available.
