Type 2 Diabetes | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2015

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic, progressive metabolic disease in which the body becomes resistant to insulin, most often as a result of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. The primary goal of the treatment of T2D is to achieve and maintain glycemic control in order to reduce the risk of both microvascular complications (e.g., diabetic neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy) and macrovascular complications (e.g., myocardial infarction, stroke). Due to the progressive nature of T2D, the number of antidiabetic medications used increases over time. Physicians and treatment guidelines acknowledge the role of metformin as the gold-standard first-line therapy in treating T2D. Further therapies (primarily oral agents such as dipeptidyl peptidase-4 [DPP-IV] inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 [SGLT-2] inhibitors, and sulfonylureas) are typically added as second- and third-line agents to help maintain long-term glycemic control. A significant number of patients will also require additional treatment with injectable therapies such as the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and insulins. Using U.S. patient-level claims data, this report analyzes the use of key therapies in the newly diagnosed and recently treated T2D patient populations. With respect to newly diagnosed patients, the report provides a prospective 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. For recently treated patients, the report quantifies a drug’s source of business versus its competitors and details which drugs precede others through a retrospective analysis of patient claims data. Additional analyses explore persistency and compliance by brand.