Variation in costs due to virtual switching from free- to fixed-triple LABA/LAMA/ICS combinations among COPD patients: an analysis using a primary care database

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition with a relevant clinical and economic burden. Only 10% to 40% of COPD patients reporting a regular use of respiratory medications, including those who suffered from severe disease being prescribed with triple combination therapy, nominally long-acting beta agonist (LABA), long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS). The recent market launch of fixed-triple LABA/LAMA/ICS therapy might contribute to improve medications adherence and costs containment, given the use of a single instead of two or three inhalers. Few data are available on costs due to triple therapy prescribed for COPD. In specific, there are no studies providing data on the potential costs saving whether COPD patients exposed to free-triple combination therapy were switched to fixed-triple combination. In this respect, we simulated some scenarios of virtual switching and calculated the related cost savings.

Keywords:

• COPD
• LABA/LAMA/ICS
• triple therapy
• costs

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was funded by the Italian College of General Practitioners and Primary Care.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

FL and EM provided consultancies in protocol preparation for epidemiological studies and data analyses for Chiesi, Novartis and GSK; CC and PFL provided clinical consultancies for Chiesi, Novartis and GSK. A reviewer on this manuscript disclosed that they have performed consulting, served on advisory boards, or received travel reimbursement from Amphastar, AstraZeneca, Chiesi, Connect Biopharma, GlaxoSmithKline, Mylan, Novartis, Sunovion and Theravance. Another reviewer disclosed that they have conducted multicenter clinical research trials for some 40 pharmaceutical companies. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no other relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.

Author contributions

FL and PFL conceptualized the study. FL, EM, PFL and CC wrote the manuscript. CC is responsible for the integrity of the work; he is the guarantor. All aspects of the study were led by the authors.

Acknowledgements

None.

Data availability statement

Research data are not shared.