Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2014
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease encompassing chronic bronchitis and emphysema that generally affects smokers and older patients. Current treatment of COPD is dominated by bronchodilators that help alleviate the symptoms. All COPD patients should use a short-acting bronchodilator, a beta2 agonist, a muscarinic antagonist, or a combination of the two to control acute exacerbations of the disease. In addition, many patients receive a long-acting bronchodilator (e.g., long-acting muscarinic antagonist [LAMA], long-acting beta2 agonist [LABA]), often accompanied by an anti-inflammatory agent (e.g., an inhaled corticosteroid [ICS]). In this report, we use national patient-level claims data to explore the position of the leading bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory therapies in the treatment of newly diagnosed COPD patients; we provide a quantitative analysis of treatment patterns and share by line of therapy, as well as progression between lines, duration of treatment on each line, and use of concomitant treatment. We also quantify, among recently treated patients, a drug’s source of business compared with its competitors and detail which drugs precede others through an analysis of add-versus-switch patterns. Additional analyses explore persistency and compliance by brand.
