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

Table 5

Net health benefits, and incremental net health benefits, in quality-adjusted life years, of VEGF inhibitor treatment in NV-AMD patients, incorporating utility values based on ETDRS visual acuity categories.

	Net Health Benefit
	Age 65 y	Age 75 y	Age 85 y
Ranibizumab	5.99 (5.90–6.09)	5.15 (5.07–5.23)	3.51 (3.46–3.57)
Pegaptanib	5.89 (5.79–5.99)	5.07 (4.99–5.15)	3.46 (3.40–3.51)
UC	5.26 (5.10–5.41)	4.54 (4.42–4.67)	3.13 (3.05–3.22)
	Incremental Net Health Benefit
	Age 65 y	Age 75 y	Age 85 y
Ranibizumab versus Pegaptanib	0.09 (0.03–0.16)	0.08 (0.03–0.14)	0.06 (0.02–0.09)
Pegaptanib versus UC	0.64 (0.50–0.77)	0.53 (0.42–0.64)	0.32 (0.25–0.39)
Ranibizumab versus UC	0.73 (0.59–0.87)	0.61 (0.48–0.74)	0.38 (0.30–0.45)

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.