- Peer-reviewed paper on cost-effectiveness of Debrichem published in Journal of Wound Care and presented by Prof. Julian F. Guest at EWMA conference.
- Topical debridement gel Debrichem plus standard care (SC) increased the probability of healing of hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers (VLU) by 75% in 12 months.
- Addition of Debrichem to SC over 12 months has the potential to reduce NHS costs for hard-to-heal VLUs by up to 57%, compared to SC alone.
- Addition of Debrichem to SC increased health-related quality of life over 12 months from 0.74 to 0.84 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per patient.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 13, 2022 – DEBx Medical, the Dutch medical technology company revolutionizing the management of chronic wounds, announced today that data on cost-effectiveness of its novel desiccant debridement gel (Debrichem®) is now published by Prof. Dr. Julian F. Guest, Dr. med. Valter Deanesi and Dr. med. Arrigo Segalla, in the renowned medical Journal of Wound Care. The peer-reviewed article “Cost-effectiveness of Debrichem in managing hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers in the UK” demonstrates Debrichem’s added health economic benefit in reducing NHS costs for this indication by 57%, while substantially improving patient outcomes, compared to a standard care protocol alone.
Michel H.E. Hermans, M.D., Chair of the respective EWMA satellite symposium, commented: “The National Health Service is estimated to spend an annual £ 3.2 billion to treating VLUs, while approximately 87% of these costs (£ 2.8 billion) were used for hard-to-heal VLUs. The study, presented by Professor Julian Guest, showed a strong potential for Debrichem to be beneficial for the UK National Health Service: with Debrichem, the health outcomes improved for significantly lower cost. In total, the NHS could save up to 57% on wound care management costs in treating hard-to-heal VLUs.”
The objective of this health economic review was to estimate whether the topical desiccant debridement gel Debrichem could potentially deliver a cost-effective solution for the management of hard-to-heal VLUs. Employing a Markov model, the study was based on a retrospective cohort analysis of anonymized case records of patients who suffered from this condition. Markov models are recursive decision trees used for modeling conditions involving events that may occur repeatedly over time, as is the case with VLUs and wound infections.
A total of 114 patients, 50% female, with a mean age of 69.5 years, with VLUs presenting a mean wound area of 92.9 square cm and a mean wound duration of 7.8 months prior to treatment were allocated into two cohorts, consisting of 57 patients each. The first cohort received Debrichem plus SC, the second cohort received SC alone. SC comprised a number of clinician visits, hospital admissions, attendance at accident and emergency units plus the combination of dressings, compression therapy and other bandages that patients received.
In the first cohort, SC plus Debrichem, hard-to-heal VLUs had a 75% increased probability of healing by 12 months, and health-related quality of life over 12 months increased from 0.74 to 0.84 QALYs per patient. Cost of treatment over 12 months for Debrichem plus SC was £ 3,128 per patient, while standard care alone cost £ 7,195 per patient, with price calculation based on NHS unit resource costs at 2019/20. In conclusion, the authors found that Debrichem has the potential to reduce overall NHS wound care costs for managing hard-to-heal VLUs by up to 57%.
“We are very encouraged by these health economic data. Hard-to-heal VLUs, which have a worldwide prevalence of about 1.5% in developed countries, pose a reducible large expense to healthcare systems. This data convinces us that Debrichem can help to greatly improve the outcomes and enhance the quality of life of patients around the world and at the same time dramatically reduce healthcare costs compared to traditional procedures, for instance sharp debridement. Contrary to conventional surgical treatments, Debrichem desiccates the wound chemically by disrupting the biofilm and thus removing infections of the wound in more than 90% of cases after a single treatment,”, commented Bert Quint, M.D., CEO of DEBx Medical.
Prof. Dr. Julian F. Guest spoke at the renowned conference of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA), hosted in Paris from May 23 to 25, 2022, during the “Opening Key session: EWMA past, present, and future activities” on the topic of “Economy, where are we now?” and presented his study findings in a 1-hour satellite symposium.
Click here to read the full press release
Click here to read the full article in the Journal of Wound Care
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