Real-World Persistence to Antifibrotic Therapy in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in a Commercial and Medicare Advantage Population

Author(s)

Manisha Lin, PharmD, MPH1, Benjamin S. Wu, MS, PharmD2, Kellie D. Morland, PharmD1, Murali Ramaswamy, MD3;
1United Therapeutics Corporation, Silver Spring, MD, USA, 2United Therapeutics Corporation, HEOR, Ellicott City, MD, USA, 3Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro, NC, USA
OBJECTIVES: To characterize adherence and persistence among patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis initiating antifibrotic therapy.
METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Optum’s de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database. Patients with IPF initiating antifibrotic therapy between 01/01/17 through 03/31/24 were identified and indexed on date of first antifibrotic therapy. Patients were required to be aged ≥18 years at index, have ≥1 inpatient or ≥2 outpatient medical claims separated by at least 30 days with a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis pre-index, continuously enrolled for 6-months pre-index, no claim for antifibrotic therapy pre-index and no prior lung transplant. Adherence to therapy was calculated using proportion of days covered (PDC). Persistence to antifibrotic therapy was quantified in the post-index period and patients with any 45-day gap in therapy were deemed non-persistent. Patients were censored at the earliest date of switching to the other antifibrotic, receiving a lung transplant, death, end of continuous enrollment or end of data.
RESULTS: A total of 2,042 patients met full selection criteria, 743 initiating pirfenidone and 1,299 initiating nintedanib. For all patients, mean(SD) age at initiation was 74.4(8.3), with 38% female and 84% white race. Mean(SD) Quan-Charlson comorbidity index was 3.2 and 29% having co-morbid pulmonary hypertension at treatment initiation. The mean(SD) follow-up time was approximately 19(18) months. Across all available follow-up, the mean PDC was 0.55(0.35) with 37% achieving a PDC ≥0.8 and 55% achieving a PDC ≥0.5. At the end of follow-up, 72% of patients discontinued therapy before meeting a censor criteria and 4% switched to the other antifibrotic. Pirfenidone initiators had slightly higher discontinuations at 74% relative to nintedanib initiators with 70% discontinuing at end of follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with IPF have high discontinuation and shortly after initiation of antifibrotic therapy. There remains a large unmet need in the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Conference/Value in Health Info

2025-05, ISPOR 2025, Montréal, Quebec, CA

Value in Health, Volume 28, Issue S1

Code

CO131

Topic

Clinical Outcomes

Disease

No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas, SDC: Respiratory-Related Disorders (Allergy, Asthma, Smoking, Other Respiratory)

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