Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to assess product-specific features for a variety of self-administered injection devices and identify key factors that patients and nurses in select European markets find most important when selecting injection devices for self-administration of recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone and urinary human follicle-stimulating hormone for fertility/reproductive therapy.
Patients and methods
Patients (N=402) in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as reproductive/fertility nurses (N=40) in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and the Czech Republic were surveyed. All patients were previously prescribed a follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) treatment for either in vitro fertilization or ovulation induction. Patient and nurse preferences for attributes across all injection devices in the market were obtained via an online questionnaire and evaluated using the maximum differential scaling (MaxDiff) and conjoint analyses, which captured the relative importance of the selected FSH injection device attributes to determine specific qualities in overall product preference.
Results
Both the MaxDiff and conjoint analyses indicated that, for patients and nurses, the ideal FSH injection device would be a highly accurate, multi-use reusable pen injector with a dial-back function that would be easy for both use and education/instruction. Patients and nurses each selected attributes pertinent to their own experiences with the FSH injection device. Categorically, patients valued factors that resulted in minimal impact on daily life, including reduced injection volume to minimize injection-site pain, as well as a reusable device that would be easy to use; nurses placed greater value on a device that would be easy to teach in order to instruct the greatest number of patients while minimizing risk.
Conclusion
Patient and nurse preferences were aligned on certain selected attributes of the FSH products. Although this study was an unbranded examination of attributes across all injection devices currently in the market, results demonstrated that the preferred product attributes were all characteristics of the Ovaleap® Pen.
Disclosure
This study was supported by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Teva provided a full review of the manuscript. P Zitoun received honoraria from Ferring and Teva. P Zitoun worked at the Clinique Pierre Cherest during the study and now works at American Hospital of Paris. J Parikh is a fertility consultant at Lister Fertility Clinic, London, UK. M Nijs is a lecturer at Origio, a Cooper Surgical Company. W Zhang is an employee of WG Consulting, whose work on this project was funded by Teva Global Health Economics & Outcomes Research. R Levy-Toledano was a consultant for Teva Europe Medical Affairs during the study and currently a consultant as Fertility Medical Director for Theramex HQ UK Limited. B Tang was Teva employee during the study. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.