In recent years, cost-effectiveness analysis has been applied to determine entry onto the National Reimbursement Drug List in China. With the limited alternative drugs for the treatment of Crohn’s disease (CD), more than 90% of patients are treated with conventional therapy drugs. As a new-generation biological drug, vedolizumab (VDZ) was approved to treat CD in March 2020 in China and it provided a new option for the patients.

Economic evaluation evidence of vedolizumab is needed to support health decision-making in China. A hybrid decision tree and Markov model were first developed to compare the lifetime costs and health outcomes of VDZ and CT in the treatment of Chinese patients with moderate-to-severe active CD using published efficacy data of GEMINI 2 and GEMINI 3 trials in China.

Compared with CT, VDZ appears to be a cost-effective option in the treatment of adult patients with moderate-to-severe active CD in China in both anti-TNF-naïve and anti-TNF-failure populations.