Why carry out this study?

Treatment guidelines released by the European Society for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) recommend the use of use of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors as second-line therapies for patients with type 2 diabetes

There is currently no direct head-to-head trial comparing once-weekly semaglutide 1 mg and empagliflozin 25 mg, a GLP-1 receptor agonist and an SGLT2 inhibitor with evidence of a cardiovascular benefit, respectively, but a meta-analysis using individual patient data has recently been published, which has been used to inform the effectiveness parameters within this cost-effectiveness analysis

The present analysis assessed the long-term cost-effectiveness of once-weekly semaglutide 1 mg versus empagliflozin 25 mg for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with inadequate glycaemic control on metformin monotherapy from a healthcare payer perspective in the UK

What was learned from the study?

Once-weekly semaglutide 1 mg was associated with increases in life expectancy and quality-adjusted life expectancy of 0.12 years and 0.23 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), respectively, compared with empagliflozin 25 mg

Once-weekly semaglutide was associated with a mean increase in costs of GBP 1017, leading to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of GBP 4439 per QALY gained

Once-weekly semaglutide 1 mg was projected to be a cost-effective treatment from a healthcare payer perspective compared with empagliflozin 25 mg for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes in the UK setting based on a willingness to pay threshold of GBP 20,000 per QALY gained as used by NICE