Sepracor drug may prove cost-effective answer to chronic insomnia

Lunesta is the first and only sleep aid approved by the FDA for long-term use.

Results from two analyses designed to assess potential pharmacoeconomic benefits associated with the use of Lunesta (eszopiclone) in the long-term treatment of insomnia suggest Lunesta may help decrease total annual expenditure on sleep deprivation following certain health care plans. This analysis weighs up drug efficacy against total cost.

The first analysis used medical claims and clinical trial data for over 85,000 patients who used several insomnia medications to produce a budget impact model to help health plans estimate the cost of adding new drugs to their formularies. When using the primary efficacy measure of total sleep time, the model showed that for a health plan with 100,000 members, introduction of Lunesta would decrease total annual expenditures for insomnia patients by approximately $587,881 based on assumptions of certain patient characteristics.

A second study utilized a decision analytical model that was developed based on the six-month, placebo-controlled trial that assessed the effect of Lunesta 3mg versus placebo on various sleep and daytime-function parameters. The findings from this six-month study were combined with quality of life and cost data from published literature and claims databases.

The results demonstrated that the cost effectiveness associated with use of Lunesta was comparable to, or better than, the cost effectiveness of broadly accepted treatments for other conditions, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia, menopausal symptoms, migraine, overactive bladder, irritable bowel syndrome and adult herpes infections.

“Long-term treatment with Lunesta may not only help reduce the symptoms of insomnia but has the potential to do it cost effectively by reducing its direct and indirect economic burden and improving the health-related quality of life of insomnia patients,” said Marc Botteman, lead author of the study.