Parkinson’s Disease | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2015
The symptomology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is heterogeneous; individual patients experience different combinations of primary motor symptoms, complications of therapy, and/or key nonmotor comorbidities (e.g., dementia, psychosis). Moreover, in each patient, the balance of the many disease- and therapy-related symptoms typically changes as the disease progresses. PD treatment is thus highly individualized as physicians settle on a drug regimen that best addresses the myriad signs and symptoms specific to each patient at a given point in time and make therapeutic adjustments as needed—sometimes frequently. The availability of numerous and complementary therapeutic options adds to the complexity of the treatment algorithm in PD, and growing generics competition in this market further complicates treatment decisions. Using national patient-level claims data, this report explores the evolving position of current drugs in PD treatment. Quantitative analyses of the “Newly Diagnosed Patients” data include share by line of therapy, progression between lines, duration of treatment on each line, and the use of concomitant treatment. For “Recently Treated Patients,” the report expands the understanding of PD treatment patterns by quantifying drugs’ source of business and patient flow through preceding therapies. Additional analyses explore persistency and compliance by brand.