Treatment persistence and adherence and their consequences on patient outcomes of generic versus brand-name statins routinely used to treat high cholesterol levels in Spain: a retrospective cost-consequences analysis

• Published in: Lipids in health and disease 2018-12, Vol.17 (1), p.277-277, Article 277
• Main Authors: Sicras Mainar, Antoni, Sánchez-Álvarez, Luis, Navarro-Artieda, Ruth, Darbà, Josep
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adherence; Adhesions; Analysis; Anàlisi cost-benefici; Anàlisi econòmica; Cardiovascular diseases; Cholesterol; Colesterol; Cost effectiveness; Costs; Drug delivery devices; Drug prescribing; Economic analysis; Electronic medical records; Generic drugs; Health aspects; Health risk assessment; Hypercholesterolemia; Low density lipoprotein; Medical policy; Mortality; Outcomes; Patient compliance; Patients; patient’s at goal; Persistence; Política sanitària; Prescripció de medicaments; Resource utilization; Risk factors; Sistemes d'administració de medicaments; Spain; Statins
• ISSN: 1476-511X; 1476-511X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12944-018-0918-y

High blood lipoprotein concentrations are one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Drug therapy is the base of treatment; statins in particular. Both brand-name and generic presentations are available for statin therapy of high cholesterol levels. Factors that may influence their use in routine medical practice include, among others, patient persistence and adherence to treatment as prescribed by physicians. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to provide real-world evidence of treatment persistence and adherence and their consequences on economic and patient outcomes of generic versus brand-name statins routinely used to treat high cholesterol levels in Spain. Existing real-world electronic medical records abstracted from a database of two regions in Spain were analyzed. The analysis compared generic versus brand-name statins data from subjects' who started treatment between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2012. Treatment persistence, adherence expressed as medication possession ratio (MPR), healthcare resource utilization and their costs were analyzed together with patient's at-goal rates of low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), incidence of any major cardiovascular event (CVE) and all-cause mortality during a 5-year follow-up period. Multivariate analyses were applied. A total of 13,244 records were included. Persistence was lower with generics; adjusted hazard ratio -HR- [95% confidence interval]: 0.86 [0.82-0.91], p