Economic evaluation of donepezil treatment for Alzheimer's disease in Japan

To demonstrate the economic impact of donepezil treatment for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Japanese clinical settings, we conducted a cost-utility analysis using the Markov model. This analysis was made from a payer's perspective, and the cost was estimated based on the fee schedule of the Japanese national health insurance and the long-term care insurance. The results of the clinical trial of donepezil on AD in Japan were used to estimate the drug efficacy. Under the base-case analysis with a 2-year time horizon, donepezil treatment for patients with mild to moderate AD was considered to be an economically dominant strategy compared to conventional therapy.