BackgroundDapagliflozin and empagliflozin are emerging as promising treatment options for diabetic kidney disease (DKD).ObjectiveThis study sought to evaluate the cost effectiveness of incorporating dapagliflozin and empagliflozin into the standard treatment for DKD in China.MethodsA Markov model was constructed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of dapagliflozin and empagliflozin plus standard treatment versus standard treatment alone for DKD treatment from a healthcare perspective. Costs and utility data was obtained from published literatures within the Chinese context. The primary outcome included total cost, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). GDP per capita of 2023 in China (& YEN;89,358) was utilized as the willingness-to-pay threshold.ResultsCompared to standard treatment alone, add-on therapy of dapagliflozin or empagliflozin resulted in a higher total cost than those solely receiving standard treatment (+& YEN;19,203.56 and +& YEN;9496.92, respectively). However, both dapagliflozin and empagliflozin also yielded more life-years (+1.72 vs. +1.40) and QALYs (+1.40 vs. +0.88). The ICER per life-year and ICER per QALY was & YEN;11,178.52 and & YEN;18,192.50 for dapagliflozin and & YEN;6773.10 and & YEN;10,811.64 for empagliflozin, respectively. The incremental net monetary benefit was & YEN;75,120.54 and & YEN;68,994.90 for dapagliflozin and empagliflozin, respectively. Sensitivity analysis supported the main findings of the base-case analysis as the cost-effectiveness of dapagliflozin or empagliflozin was sustained for most plausible ranges of parameter values.ConclusionsConsidering that the ICER falls below the predefined willingness-to-pay threshold, incorporating dapagliflozin and empagliflozin into standard treatment for DKD is likely to be a cost-effective strategy in China.