Maxime Verhoeven

135 Cost-effectiveness of treat-to-target strategies over 5 years addition to subcutaneous administration, reductions in drug price of 10%, respectively 30%, were assumed. Finally, we performed an analysis in which only patients with a baseline DAS28>5.1 (i.e., more severe disease; a stratification factor for randomization in U-Act-Early) were included. 8 All sensitivity/scenario analyses are based on discounted costs and QALYs (unless otherwise specified, with 4% for costs and 1.5% for QALYs, respectively) and over the 5-year time horizon. RESULTS Overall no relevant differences between the treatment groups (as initially randomized) were found at baseline, Table 1. Ninety-one (91, 29%) patients did not participate in the PTFU. Only for mean baseline working hours per week, differences were found between patients included in the PTFU and patients not included in the PTFU (22.3 vs. 26.7 (p=0.03)), Supplementary Table 2. Approximately 80% of all patients was employed at baseline, and worked on average 24 hours weekly. Table 1 baseline characteristics of patients included in the U-Act-Early trial. TCZ+MTX (n=106) TCZ (n=103) MTX (n=108) Employed, n (%) 85 (80) 79 (77) 87 (81) Working hours per week, mean (SD) 24.0 (15.3) 22.1 (15.5) 24.6 (15.8) Female, n (%) 65 (61) 78 (76) 69 (64) RF +, n (%) 75 (71) 68 (66) 86 (80) Anti CCP +, n (%) 72 (68) 67 (65) 84 (78) RF- and/or anti-CCP+, n (%) 79 (75) 77 (75) 93 (86) Age (years), median (IQR) 53.0 (46.0-60.0) 55.0 (47.0-63.0) 53.0 (44.5-62.0) Symptom duration (days), median (IQR) 24.5 (16.0-41.5) 25.5 (18.0-45.0) 27.0 (15.0-46.0) DAS28, mean (SD) 5.2 (1.1) 5.3 (1.1) 5.1 (1.2) HAQ, mean (SD) 1.1 (0.67) 1.3 (0.66) 1.1 (0.59) included in post-trial follow-up, n (%) 75 (71) 79 (77) 72 (67) TCZ+MTX= initial tocilizumab + methotrexate strategy group; TCZ= initial tocilizumab + placebo- methotrexate strategy group; MTX= initial methotrexate + placebo-tocilizumab strategy group; RF= rheumatoid factor; += positive; anti-CCP= anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies; SD= standard deviation; IQR= interquartile range; DAS28= disease activity score assessing 28 joints [range 0-9.4, higher is more activity]; HAQ= health assessment questionnaire score [range 0-3, 3= worst function]. Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 3 shows the cost per category in each year, and over 2 and 5 years. Total medication costs were, as expected, higher in the TCZ strategy groups compared to the MTX strategy group over 2 and 5 years (TCZ+MTX and TCZ vs. MTX; 27,900 and 29,100 vs. 13,200; 41,200 and 43,700 vs. 26,600, respectively). After 2 years, medication costs decreased in all groups, and only in the last year (year 5) mean medication costs (i.e., total and TCZ costs) were less for the TCZ strategy groups. 7