Summary of Evidence Considered by CDEC
CDEC considered the following information prepared by CADTH: a systematic review of clinical trials on onasemnogene abeparvovec, a summary and critique of two sponsor-provided indirect comparisons, a summary and critique of other relevant evidence, and a critique of the sponsor’s pharmacoeconomic evaluation. The committee also considered input from clinical experts with experience in treating patients with SMA and patient group–submitted information about outcomes and issues important to patients.
Summary of Patient Input
Two patient groups provided input, Cure SMA Canada (CSMAC) and Muscular Dystrophy Canada (MDC). The submissions were based on semi-structured interviews and surveys. Together, the two patient groups collected responses from 572 patients and family members.
Patient input from CSMAC highlighted that SMA “impacts every aspect of a patient's life, from physical health, family dynamics, mental health, and longevity”. Similarly, the patient input received from the MDC highlighted four key themes; negative impact on mental and emotional well-being, loss of patient independence, increased load on families, and difficulty breathing, swallowing and loss of mobility. As SMA progresses, patients lose the ability to walk, perform daily hygiene tasks or even swallow and breathe independently. In addition, “most patients are unable to perform their own personal care activities.” The most concerning aspects of SMA are difficulties breathing and swallowing. Parents indicated that “their children showed the inability to breathe properly from very early in life, they lost their ability to swallow, requiring regular suctioning, positioning and hospitalizations.” The burden of this disease can be extraordinarily high for caregivers.
Currently, nusinersen is available as a treatment for SMA. Respondents indicated a wide range of experience with nusinersen, from no clear benefits to “definitely beneficial” with one parent reporting “improved quality of life” shortly after treatment initiation. Patients and parents expressed concern and anxiety about the quarterly intrathecal administration of nusinersen, a painful and invasive procedure required for the patient’s lifetime, which is particularly challenging for young children.
Patients and their families expressed enthusiasm and high expectations for onasemnogene abeparvovec treatment considering the one-time infusion and the mechanism of action. Families affected by SMA are very hopeful that onasemnogene abeparvovec will improve the overall quality of life of people with SMA by improving motor function, respiratory function, and feeding, and by stopping disease progression. Some respondents believe the gene therapy “could be a cure” and “if children are treated pre-symptomatically, they could potentially live normal lives”.
Clinical Trials
The systematic review included one study, STR1VE-US (N = 22). the STR1VE-US study (also known as CL-303) was a phase III, open-label, single-arm, single-dose study that investigated the efficacy and safety of onasemnogene abeparvovec in infants with SMA type 1 who were symptomatic or pre-symptomatic with one or two copies of SMN2 (inclusive of the known SMN2 gene modifier mutations [c.859G>C]). The study was conducted in multiple centres in the US and enrolled a total of 22 SMA patients. Patients enrolled in the STR1VE-US study were given one-time intravenous infusion of onasemnogene abeparvovec at 1.1 × 1014 vg/kg. In addition, patients received prophylactic prednisolone at approximately 1 mg/kg per day beginning 24 hours before gene replacement therapy until at least 30 days post-infusion in accordance with the protocol-specified guidelines for steroid tapering.
A total of 22 patients were enrolled in the STR1VE-US study and were given onasemnogene abeparvovec. Overall, 54.4% were females, 50.0% were white, the onset of symptoms was reported at a mean age of 1.9 months ([SD = 1.2), all patients had two copies of SMN2, and none required feeding support or ventilatory support at baseline. At study baseline, enrolled patients had a mean age of 3.7 months (SD = 1.6) and a mean Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders (CHOP INTEND) score of 32.0 (SD = 9.7).
The key limitation of the STR1VE-US study was the absence of a concurrent control arm in the form of a placebo control or an active control, leading to a potential overestimate of treatment effect for onasemnogene abeparvovec in the single arm trial. Without a randomized comparison to a control group, natural fluctuations in the disease cannot be adjusted for, nor can the effects of known and unknown confounders. Comparison to similar outcome measures in the PNCR dataset, while useful to reflect the natural history of the disease, is limited by differences in patient characteristics between the two populations (patients in the PNCR dataset were older at symptoms onset, had a lower CHOP INTEND score, and required more feeding support and more ventilatory support) that could impact response to treatment or outcome regardless of treatment. The PNCR dataset and STR1VE study populations are different based on a period-cohort basis; PNCR enrolled patients between May 2005 and April 2009, several years before the start date of the STR1VE-US study (October 24, 2017). As well, no statistical analytical methods were used to account for differences between patients in the STR1VE-US study and the PNCR dataset.
Investigators and outcome assessors in the STR1VE-US study were aware that patients have received onasemnogene abeparvovec infusion. The STR1VE-US study did not include patients six months of age or older, who required nutritional or ventilatory support, or who had more than two copies of SMN2.
Outcomes
Outcomes were defined a priori in the CADTH systematic review protocol. Of these, the committee discussed the following:
motor function related outcomes
respiratory related outcomes
survival
health-related quality of life
safety outcomes.
The STR1VE-US study measured two co-primary outcomes: functional independent sitting at 18 months of age (defined as ability to sit alone ≥30 seconds) and survival at 14 months of age (defined as avoidance of death or permanent ventilation). Additionally, the STR1VE-US study measured two co-secondary outcomes — maintenance of ability to thrive and independence of ventilatory support — along with several exploratory outcomes. The results of the co-primary outcomes for the STR1VE-US study were contrasted with the results of a natural history cohort from the PNCR dataset. The PNCR dataset gathers retrospective and prospective data for patients with SMA who are managed in Harvard University/Boston Children’s Hospital, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania/Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The PNCR natural history cohort was comprised of 23 patients with SMA type 1 (symptoms onset before six months of age and 2 copies of SMN2).
Efficacy
By 18 months of age, 59.1% of patients (13 out of 22; 97.5% CI, 33.6% to 81.4%; P <0.0001) enrolled in the STR1VE-US study achieved the co-primary outcome of independent sitting for at least 30 seconds, compared to a historical control rate of 0% (0 out of 23) patients in the PNCR natural history cohort.
The co-primary outcome of the proportion of patients with event-free survival (no death or permanent ventilation) showed that 90% of patients (20 out of 22; 97.5% CI, not reported; P <0.0001) were able to survive until 13.6 months of age without the need for permanent ventilation. In contrast, 26.1% of patients (6 out of 22; 97.5% CI, not reported) in the PNCR dataset natural history cohort reached the age of 13.6 months without the need for permanent ventilation.
For the co-secondary outcome, maintenance of ability to thrive at 18 months, 40.9% of patients (9 out of 22; 97.5% CI, 18.6% to 66.4%; P < 0.0001) achieved all three criteria for this outcome (able to tolerate thin liquids, does not receive nutrition through mechanical support, and maintains weight consistent with age). Onasemnogene abeparvovec also demonstrated benefit for the other co-secondary outcome, independence from daily ventilatory support (in the absence of acute reversible illness and excluding perioperative ventilation) at 18 months; 81.8% of patients (18 out of 22; 97.5% CI, 45.1% to 86.1%; P < 0.0001) achieved this outcome.
Assessment of various motor milestones indicated that most patients (85.0%, 17 out of 20) were able to hold their head erect unsupported and over half were able to roll (59.0%, 13 out of 22) and sit alone for 10 seconds or longer (63.6%, 14 out of 22). One patient was able to achieve the motor milestones of crawling, pulling to stand, stand with assistance, stand alone, and walk with assistance.
Harms (Safety)
At least one adverse event was reported in all enrolled patients. Pyrexia was reported by the largest percentage of patients (54.5%), followed by upper respiratory tract infection (50%), constipation (40.9%), and scoliosis (40.9%), although the latter was likely a signal of disease progression instead of a drug-related adverse event. Serious adverse events were reported in 45% of patients, with most of the serious adverse events related to respiratory problems or respiratory infections. Two patients withdrew from treatment due to adverse events (one died and the other withdrew after experiencing respiratory distress). The cause of death for the one patient who died was determined by the study investigators to be unrelated to onasemnogene abeparvovec.
An increase in the aminotransferase levels occurred in approximately one-quarter of patients treated with onasemnogene abeparvovec in the STR1VE-US study (27% had elevated AST and 23% had elevated ALT).
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Thrombocytopenia was recorded in 9.1% of patients.
Indirect Treatment Comparisons
Two ITCs were reviewed: a sponsor-provided ITC and a published ITC by Dabbous et al. that was funded by the sponsor. Both ITCs aimed to assess the comparative efficacy of onasemnogene abeparvovec versus nusinersen in patients with SMA type 1. Dabbous et al. used data from the nusinersen ENDEAR study and from the onasemnogene abeparvovec START study (see Other Relevant Evidence) to conduct unanchored naive Bayesian and frequentist comparisons. The sponsor-provided ITC used data from the ENDEAR study (plus its long-term extension study, SHINE) and the START and STR1VE-US studies to perform an unanchored, naive Bayesian comparison and an unanchored matched adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC).
Both unanchored naive Bayesian analyses suggested that onasemnogene abeparvovec was favoured over nusinersen in both base-case and sensitivity analyses for the survival and motor milestone achievement outcomes, and for avoidance of permanent assisted ventilation in the Dabbous et al. analysis. Using the unanchored MAIC approach, in which adjustment could only be made for baseline CHOP INTEND score and baseline nutritional support, onasemnogene abeparvovec was favoured over nusinersen in event-free survival. The unanchored MAIC did not favour either intervention for overall survival.
Only the sponsor-provided ITC assessed adverse events. The reported differences in adverse events between onasemnogene abeparvovec and nusinersen were associated with unrealistically large estimates and very wide credible intervals.
The results from the ITCs are associated with serious limitations related to the differences in study designs, study entry criteria, patient characteristics, and outcome definitions between the nusinersen and onasemnogene abeparvovec trials. Considering the lack of proper anchoring for the indirect comparisons and the inability to control for the considerable heterogeneity in the included studies, the basic assumptions behind the ITCs are unlikely to have been met. As such, the results of these analyses are not considered valid for the purposes of decision making.
Other Relevant Evidence
The SPR1NT study (N = 30), is an ongoing phase III, multicenter, open-label, single-arm, global clinical trial for onasemnogene abeparvovec in infants younger than six weeks at the time of infusion, diagnosed with pre-symptomatic SMA with bi-allelic deletion of the SMN1 gene and two or three copies of the SMN2 gene. The intervention was a one-time intravenous infusion of 1.1 × 1014 vg/kg onasemnogene abeparvovec. The planned follow-up was up to 18 months of age for patients with two copies of the SMN2 gene (Cohort 1; N = 14) and up to 24 months for those with three copies of the SMN2 gene (Cohort 2; N = 15). For the primary efficacy outcome of Cohort 1, 57.1% of infants achieved independent sitting for 30 seconds or longer at any time up to 18 months of age, which was statistically significantly greater than the null value of 0.1% (97.5% CI, 25.8% to 84.7%; P < 0.0001) derived from natural history cohorts sampled from the PNCR and NeuroNEXT datasets. The percentage of infants in Cohort 2 who achieved this outcome was 66.7% (97.5% CI,▬▬▬▬). Greater than one-quarter of infants (26.7%) were able to stand without support for three seconds or longer at any time up to 24 months of age; this was the primary efficacy outcome of Cohort 2 (it was not evaluated for those in Cohort 1) but no statistical comparisons or confidence intervals were reported. All infants in both cohorts survived event-free (defined as avoidance of death or the requirement of permanent ventilation) at 14 months of age. ▬▬▬▬ in Cohort 1 and▬▬▬▬ in Cohort 2 maintained the ability to thrive (i.e., maintained body weight at or above the third percentile without the need for non-oral or mechanical feeding support) at 12 months of age. Two patients (13.3%) in Cohort 2 walked without support milestone at any time up to 24 months of age; this outcome was not evaluated in Cohort 1. Adverse events were similar to those observed in the STR1VE-US study. The lack of a concurrent comparator group and comparisons with the natural history cohorts may overestimate the benefits of onasemnogene abeparvovec treatment in infants who are pre-symptomatic and have two or three copies of the SMN2 gene. However, the outcomes evaluated in the study were objective and clinically relevant, which may mitigate some of the design limitations.
The START study (N = 15) was a phase I, single-center, open-label, single-infusion, ascending-dose clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two doses of onasemnogene abeparvovec (Cohort 1 received 6.7 × 1013 vg/kg, n = 3; Cohort 2 received the therapeutic dose 2.0 × 1014 vg/kg, n = 12). Patients were younger than six months with a bi-allelic SMN1 mutation (deletion or point-mutation) and two copies of the SMN2 gene, consistent with SMA type 1. Of note, the original protocol allowed infants up to the age of nine months to be eligible. This inclusion criterion was revised to include patients six months or younger; nine patients were enrolled before this change with an age range of nine months or younger. Patients were observed for two-years following the single infusion. Patients could continue into the 15-year START long-term extension study.
Two ongoing studies, STR1VE-EU and STR1VE-AP, have the same study design, entry criteria, intervention, and outcomes as the STR1VE-US study, except that they are enrolling patients living in Europe and Asia (specifically Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), respectively.
The preliminary nature of the results from the ongoing STR1VE-EU study makes it difficult to draw conclusions beyond the results being supportive of those from STR1VE-US.
Cost and Cost-Effectiveness
All kits supplying onasemnogene abeparvovec are priced at $2,910,500 which is the one-time, total drug acquisition cost.
The sponsor submitted a cost-utility analysis assessing onasemnogene abeparvovec compared to nusinersen, and BSC, for the treatment of patients with SMA type 1 with an onset of symptoms at six months of age or younger, who are symptomatic at baseline, and have two copies of the SMN2 gene. The modelled population differs from the Health Canada indication and funding request, which do not specify SMA type 1 or restrict to patients with symptoms. The economic analysis was undertaken over a lifetime time horizon (80 years) from the perspective of the public health care payer. The cohort-state transition model (Markov) consisted of five health states based on motor function milestones achieved by the patient, including: within a broad range of normal development, walking unassisted, sitting unassisted, unable to sit unassisted, and requiring permanent assisted ventilation. The model consisted of two phases. The first phase (early) captured patient movement between health states within the first 30 months of treatment with onasemnogene abeparvovec and 40 months for patients on nusinersen based on the observed clinical trial data for patients on pharmacotherapy. Data from the START and STR1VE-US studies informed a MAIC for the comparison between onasemnogene abeparvovec and nusinersen. A naive comparison was conducted for onasemnogene abeparvovec compared with BSC, with natural history cohort data used to inform the efficacy of BSC. The second phase (extrapolated) was a long-term extrapolation (remaining 77 years of the model time horizon) used to model patient survival according to natural history data based on the patient’s health state at the end of the early phase of the model. The sponsor submitted an additional scenario analysis based on interim data from the SPR1NT study to reflect patients with three copies of the SMN2 gene.
CADTH identified the following key limitations with the sponsor’s submitted economic analysis:
The magnitude of clinical benefit, with regards to motor milestone achievement and survival (i.e., mortality and requirement of permanent ventilation), with onasemnogene abeparvovec compared with BSC, and nusinersen, is highly uncertain. A naive comparison approach was used for BSC, which introduced a high level of uncertainty to these results. The ITC technique used by the sponsor was insufficient to establish the comparative effectiveness of nusinersen. There is also no evidence for the long-term comparative efficacy and safety of onasemnogene abeparvovec or nusinersen, adding to the uncertainty.
The target population in the model (symptomatic patients) does not include all patients who are likely to receive onasemnogene abeparvovec, such as pre-symptomatic patients.
The submitted model structure may not appropriately capture all key changes in patient health-related quality of life, including SMA-related developments such as the requirement for nutritional support or loss in functional status, for patients other than those who discontinue nusinersen.
Several issues were identified with assumptions relating to the utility values used, which biased incremental QALYs in favour of onasemnogene abeparvovec.
Issues were identified with ventilation costs and with an inappropriate assumption that SMA patients could be “within a broad range of normal development”, which biased costs and QALYs in favour of onasemnogene abeparvovec.
CADTH conducted a reanalysis to address some of the identified limitations. It assumed equal motor milestone achievement and survival for both patients receiving onasemnogene abeparvovec and nusinersen, removed utility increments for patients in the unable to sit unassisted or sitting unassisted health states, assigned utility values to the walking unassisted and requiring permanent assisted ventilation health states to align with the expectations of clinical experts, and updated permanent ventilation costs. Although CADTH reanalyses were in line with those of the sponsor, the key limitations pertaining to the lack of longer term and comparative clinical information could not be addressed and remains a key issue for the interpretation of the results. CADTH estimated that onasemnogene abeparvovec is associated with an ICER of $334,090 per QALY compared with BSC, and onasemnogene abeparvovec dominates nusinersen. Compared with BSC, onasemnogene abeparvovec would not be considered cost-effective at a conventional willingness-to-pay threshold. A price reduction of more than 90% is required for onasemnogene abeparvovec to be considered the cost-effective strategy compared to BSC at a willingness-to-pay threshold of $50,000 per QALY.
Several major limitations could not be addressed, most importantly the lack of information on the long-term comparative clinical effectiveness of onasemnogene abeparvovec versus comparators. Within the model, 96% and 98% of the QALY benefit of onasemnogene abeparvovec compared with BSC and nusinersen, respectively, was estimated beyond the observed trial period. The cost of nusinersen is a key cost driver but the actual price for participating plans is unknown. Additionally, the sponsor’s base case analysis only considered patients with SMA type 1 and two copies of the SMN2 gene who were younger than two years of age and symptomatic at baseline before six months of age, rather than the full indicated population. A scenario analysis submitted by the sponsor suggested that the conclusions drawn from the CADTH reanalysis may be broadly applicable to Type 1 SMA patients with three SMN2 copies who were pre-symptomatic at baseline, but limitations within the clinical data make the results from this analysis highly uncertain. No information was submitted for patients with one copy of the SMN2 gene, and the cost-effectiveness in this population is unknown. Because of these limitations, caution should be exerted in the interpretation of the health economic results. The cost-effectiveness of onasemnogene abeparvovec in patients older than six months of age is unknown.
CDEC Members
Dr. James Silvius (Chair), Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, Dr. Sally Bean, Dr. Bruce Carleton, Dr. Alun Edwards, Mr. Bob Gagne, Dr. Ran Goldman, Dr. Allan Grill, Mr. Allen Lefebvre, Ms. Heather Neville, Dr. Danyaal Raza, Dr. Emily Reynen, Dr. Yvonne Shevchuk, and Dr. Adil Virani.
November 18, 2020 Meeting (Initial)
Regrets
None
Conflicts of Interest
None
CDEC Members
Dr. James Silvius (Chair), Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, Dr. Sally Bean, Dr. Bruce Carleton, Dr. Alun Edwards, Mr. Bob Gagne, Dr. Ran Goldman, Dr. Allan Grill, Mr. Allen Lefebvre, Dr. Kerry Mansell, Ms. Heather Neville, Dr. Danyaal Raza, Dr. Emily Reynen, Dr. Yvonne Shevchuk, and Dr. Adil Virani.
March 17, 2021 Meeting (Reconsideration and Clarification)
Regrets
None
Conflicts of Interest
None
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