The 21st Annual European Congress of The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) is currently (Nov 10–14th 2018) underway in Barcelona, Spain. This conference, titled “New Perspectives for Improving 21st Century Health Systems”, has attracted over 3,700 professionals from all health care sectors. Attendees are learning about recent trends in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) and networking with colleagues and global experts in the field. The results of two new real world-data studies carried out by MedEngine are being presented at the congress.
This week, MedEngine presents the results of two real-world studies at the ISPOR meeting in Barcelona, the leading European congress for health economics and outcomes research. Studies based on data collected from real-world clinical settings shed new light on the clinical practices and costs of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Finland.
Treatment persistence and the economic burden of ibd patients treated with infliximab in Finland
Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are the primary constituents of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The TNF (tumor necrosis factor) alpha inhibitor infliximab is one of the most commonly used biological drugs in Finland for the treatment of patients with active IBD. The FinIBD studycharacterized the treatment persistence, healthcare utilization, and associated costs of care among adult IBD patients for a 12-month period after the initiation of infliximab treatment.
The real-world data collected from the Hospital District of Southwest Finland revealed that 60% of CD patients and 44% of UC patients persisted on first-line infliximab treatment during the first year after treatment initiation. The mean total annual direct costs of care were 8,769€ for CD and 9,541€ for UC patients. The economic burden of IBD was mainly driven by biological medication: the percentage of direct costs attributed to infliximab in CD and UC were 70% and 60%, respectively. This data is essential for understanding the overall economic burden of the disease and optimizing IBD treatment in Finland.
Healthcare resource utilization and cost of care among finnish non-small cell lung cancer patients.
Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. A small proportion (3–5%) of NSCLC patients have a tumorigenic rearrangement of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. According to Finnish Current Care Guidelines, the first- or second-line therapy for the ALK-positive patients is ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (ALK TKI) treatment. The FinALK study provides insight into real-life healthcare resource utilization and costs among ALK-positive and ALK-negative NSCLC patients in Finland.
The FinALK study draws on a cohort of adult NSCLC patients treated at the Hospital District of Southwest Finland from 2013–2017. Overall, no difference was found in healthcare utilization and associated costs between the ALK-positive and the ALK-negative NSCLC patient groups. During the follow-up, the vast majority (72.2%) of the ALK-positive patients were treated with chemotherapy agents alone, and only 27.8% had ALK TKI treatment (crizotinib). The patients with crizotinib treatment had lower healthcare utilization costs but higher anti-cancer medication costs compared to the ALK-positive patients treated with chemotherapy agents. Further studies have been designed to evaluate the outcomes and costs of ALK TKI treatment in more detail.
Ventola H, Torvinen S, Herrala S, Schmidt S, Ylisaukko-oja T, Voutilainen M. The economic burden of chronic inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab in Finland.
Loponen H, Vihervaara V, Ylä-Viteli S, Torvinen S, Tamminen K, Jokelainen J, Ylisaukko-oja T, Silvoniemi M. Secondary care resource utilization and cost of care among Finnish non-small cell lung cancer patients.
Presented as posters at the ISPOR 21st Annual Congress in Spain on 10.–14.11.2018.
Please contact us at info@medengine.fi f you’re interested in hearing more about the RWE research opportunities in Finland.