Cost-per-responder analysis of TAR-200 versus other Food and Drug Administration-approved novel and generic treatments among patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin–unresponsive, high-risk, non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ in
AIMS: (CIS) is aggressive and treatment options are suboptimal. TAR-200, a novel intravesical drug-releasing system, received United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on 09/09/2025 for this population. An economic model compared the cost per responder for US patients with BCG-unresponsive HR-NMIBC with CIS treated with TAR-200 versus other FDA-approved treatments. METHODS: A 15-month cost-per-responder model was developed from a Medicare payer perspective (2025 USD). Patients treated with TAR-200 monotherapy were compared to those treated with pembrolizumab, nadofaragene firadenovec (NF), nogapendekin alfa inbakicept (NAI)+BCG (with/without reinduction), or valrubicin based on published clinical trial data. Model inputs included costs for initial/subsequent treatment, medical visits, and radical cystectomy (RC). Outcomes comprised the total cost per patient achieving and sustaining complete response (CR) for ≥12 months, based on overall CR rates and digitized Kaplan-Meier curves and swimmer plots for the 12-month duration of response. Patients experiencing non-response received subsequent treatment or underwent an RC. RESULTS: At 15 months, the proportion of patients achieving and sustaining CR for ≥12 months was 43.5% for TAR-200, 18.8% for pembrolizumab, 21.9% for NF, 26.8% for NAI+BCG (36.6% with reinduction), and 10.1% for valrubicin. The total cost per patient achieving and sustaining CR for ≥12 months was $1,892,569 for TAR-200, resulting in cost savings of $698,262 versus pembrolizumab, $406,840 versus NF, $832,346 versus NAI+BCG, and $1,541,999 versus valrubicin. Considering NAI+BCG reinduction, cost savings of $162,599 per patient achieving and sustaining CR for ≥12 months were observed for TAR-200 versus NAI+BCG. LIMITATIONS: Model inputs were based on trial publications, possibly limiting generalizability. CONCLUSIONS: TAR-200 demonstrated the highest proportion of patients achieving and sustaining CR for ≥12 months, yielding substantial cost savings per responder compared to other FDA-approved treatments for BCG-unresponsive HR-NMIBC with CIS.
Authors
- Sang Cho
- Kruti Joshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9263-5158)
- Dominic Pilon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6093-7167)
- Beatrice Libchaber
- Mukul Singhal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6986-6887)
- Laura Morrison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5289-7598)
- Francesca Lee
- Urvi Desai
- Gordon Wong
- Kayleen Gwyn
- Stephen Williams
Institutions
- Johnson & Johnson (Israel) (IL)
- Clear Lake Medical Foundation (US)
- University of Houston - Clear Lake (US)
- Analysis Group (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Medical Economics
- Published
- 2026-04-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13696998.2026.2651037
- Primary Topic
- Bladder and Urothelial Cancer Treatments
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Johnson and Johnson