Joint Assessment of Intended and Unintended Effects of Medications: An Example Using Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Inhibitors for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Table 3

Net health benefits (with 95% CI), and incremental net health benefits, of VEGF inhibitor treatment in NV-AMD patients, by age at treatment initiation (in quality-adjusted life years).

	Net Health Benefit (95% CI)
	Age 65 y	Age 75 y	Age 85 y
Ranibizumab	5.06 (4.87–5.23)	4.36 (4.19–4.52)	2.97 (2.85–3.08)
Pegaptanib	4.98 (4.80–5.17)	4.29 (4.14–4.45)	2.93 (2.81–3.03)
UC	4.31 (4.00–4.60)	3.74 (3.48–3.98)	2.59 (2.44–2.75)
	Incremental Net Health Benefit
	Age 65 y	Age 75 y	Age 85 y
Ranibizumab versus Pegaptanib	0.07 (0.01–0.14)	0.06 (0.01–0.12)	0.04 (0.01–0.08)
Pegaptanib versus UC	0.68 (0.40–0.95)	0.56 (0.34–0.77)	0.34 (0.21–0.47)
Ranibizumab versus UC	0.75 (0.45–1.04)	0.62 (0.38–0.86)	0.38 (0.24–0.53)

95% CI = 95% confidence interval; UC = Usual care; y = years.
Net health benefits were calculated by subtracting the net harms in each treatment from the benefit using the quality-adjusted life year as a common metric.
Incremental net health benefits were calculated by subtracting the net health benefits of two of the treatment arms.