Is Patient Support Program Participation Associated with Longer Persistence and Improved Adherence Among New Users of Adalimumab? A Retrospective Cohort Study

• Published in: Advances in therapy 2018-05, Vol.35 (5), p.655-665
• Main Authors: Srulovici, Einav, Garg, Vishvas, Ghilai, Adi, Feldman, Becca, Hoshen, Moshe, Balicer, Ran D., Skup, Martha, Leventer-Roberts, Maya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cardiology; Endocrinology; Health technology assessment; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Oncology; Original Research; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Rheumatology
• ISSN: 0741-238X; 1865-8652
• DOI: 10.1007/s12325-018-0706-0

Introduction Adalimumab (ADA) is a medication used in the treatment of several autoimmune diseases. Despite the beneficial effects of ADA, its adherence and persistence rates are low. Patients treated with ADA from Clalit Health Services (CHS) can enroll in AbbVie’s patient support program (PSP), which aims to improve ADA adherence and persistence. Therefore, we examine whether PSP participation is associated with a longer persistence and/or an improved adherence to ADA. Methods A real-world retrospective cohort study of all new ADA users from CHS, comparing those enrolled in the offered PSP to those not enrolled. The data regarding PSP users can be tracked using CHS’s data warehouse. The index date was defined as the date of the patients’ first purchase of ADA occurring between August 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014. The follow-up data were collected at 12, 24, and 36 months. Persistence was assessed using survival analyses of time until discontinuation, and adherence was assessed using medication possession ratio (MPR). Results There were 1520 patients in the study, 755 (49.7%) of whom were PSP users. PSP users were 54.3% female vs. 51.9% among non-PSP users ( p  = 0.355) and they were significantly younger than non-PSP users (mean age 42.3 vs. 45.0 years, p  = 0.002) The PSP and non-PSP users’ persistence was 673 and 574 days, respectively ( p