Injections frequency and health care costs in patients treated with aflibercept compared to ranibizumab: new real-life evidence from Switzerland

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious analyses of real-life data indicated that injection frequency and health care costs did not differ for anti-VEGF treatment with aflibercept and ranibizumab. The objective of this study was to investigate whether this finding persisted when analysing a longer time period after licensing.MethodsRetrospective analysis of health insurance claims data of two large Swiss basic health insurance plans including 28% of the Swiss population. Patients qualified for inclusion if aflibercept or ranibizumab treatment had been initiated between June 1, 2013 and November 1, 2014. Within this set, patients with at least 12 months of continuous insurance enrolment in the previous year, 12-month follow-up, and without change of anti-VEGF drug were considered. We examined the distribution of demographic data and patient characteristics between those receiving ranibizumab and those receiving aflibercept. Numbers of injections and associated health care expenditures observed during the 12-month follow-up period after incident treatment were the two outcomes considered. In multivariate regression analyses, controlling for possible confounding factors, we compared differences in these two outcomes between patients treated with aflibercept as compared to ranibizumab.ResultsA total of 3′058 patients were analysed, 790 (26%) receiving aflibercept and 2`268 receiving ranibizumab (74%). The use of aflibercept (average number of injections 6.2) as compared to ranibizumab (average number of injections 5.7) in the follow-up period of 1 to 12 months, was associated with a 12% increase in the injection frequency (95% confidence interval (CI) 6–17%; p < 0.001).ConclusionsReal-life data contradicts the assumption that aflibercept is used less frequently as compared to ranibizumab. This results in similar total health care expenditures for both anti-VEGF agents.

Treatment patterns in patients with age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema: A real-world claims analysis in Dubai

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“…Anti-VEGF agents have been shown to have a disease-modifying effect ( Ip et al, 2015 ). However, such an approach carries a significant treatment burden ( Blanco-Garavito et al, 2017 ; Reich et al, 2017 ; Wong et al, 2017 ). Thus, there remains a considerable unmet medical need for the development of effective strategy (ies) to prevent DR or at least slow its progression.…”

Effect of Repeated Intravitreal Ranibizumab and Aflibercept Injections on the Cornea in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…Intravitreal administration of vascular endothelial growth factor antagonists (anti-VEGF), mainly ranibizumab and aflibercept, became the gold standard of modern wet AMD therapy [2,3]. Ranibizumab (Lucentis, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA), a humanized monoclonal antibody fragment, was the first anti-VEGF agent shown to improve visual acuity in patients with wet AMD, and it was approved for use in wet AMD in Europe in 2007 [4].…”