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Treatment patterns for retinal diseases in patients newly-treated with anti-VEGF agents: A retrospective analysis of claims data from the Japan Medical Data Center database

  • Clinical Investigation
  • Published:
Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To describe treatment patterns in patients diagnosed with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), retinal vein occlusion (RVO), or diabetic macular edema (DME), newly-treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents as recorded in the Japanese Medical Data Center (JMDC) database.

Study design

This non-interventional, descriptive, retrospective, observational cohort study included insured Japanese patients aged ≥ 21 and ≤ 75 years at index date (anti-VEGF treatment initiation).

Methods

Patients with minimum one claim in JMDC database with a diagnosis code for nAMD, RVO, or DME between October 2007–May 2015 and with minimum of one claim for anti-VEGF agents on or after the date of diagnosis were included. Frequency and proportion of claims submitted for anti-VEGF injections were assessed during 12 months post-index date.

Results

The median (interquartile range) number of claims for anti-VEGF injections during 12 months post-index date were 3 (1, 4) for nAMD (n = 255), 2 (1, 3) for RVO (n = 223) and 2 (1, 4) for DME (n = 125) patients. Frequencies of nAMD, RVO and DME patients with one or more claims for a retinal disease treatment other than an anti-VEGF agent were 4 (1.57%), 59 (26.46%) and 68 (54.40%) during the 12 months pre-index date and 21 (8.24%), 85 (38.12%) and 62 (49.60%) in the 12 months post-index date, respectively.

Conclusions

The median number of anti-VEGF injections per patient was lower than those reported in clinical trials. Although various pre- and concomitant treatments were used in RVO and DME, anti-VEGF monotherapy was the first-line treatment in > 90% of nAMD patients.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Shridevi Venkataramani and Lakshmi Venkatraman (Scientific Services Practice- Product Lifecycle Services, Novartis Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India) for their medical writing and editorial assistance towards the development of this manuscript.

Funding

The study was sponsored by Novartis Pharma, K.K., Tokyo, Japan. The sponsor participated in the design of the study, conducting the study, data collection, data management, data analysis, interpretation of the data, preparation, review and approval of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vision Informatics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan

    Ryo Kawasaki

  2. Real World Data Analytics, Novartis Global Service Center, Dublin, Ireland

    Melissa Bauer

  3. Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland

    Vladimir Bezlyak

  4. Department of Visual Sciences, Nagoya City University, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8601, Japan

    Yuichiro Ogura

Authors
  1. Ryo Kawasaki
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  2. Melissa Bauer
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  4. Yuichiro Ogura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuichiro Ogura.

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Conflicts of interest

Y. Ogura, Consultant fee (Novartis, Bayer, Alcon, Wakamoto, HOYA, Astellas, Senju), Lecture fee (Santen, Kowa, Novartis, Bayer, Topcon, Nikon, Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, Boehringer Ingelhein, Otsuka); R. Kawasaki, Consultant fee (Novartis, Bayer, Roche, Senju), Lecture fee (Novartis, Bayer, Senju, Astellas, Novo Nordisk, Santen, Kowa, Takeda, Pfizer, Topcon, Nitto Medic); M. Bauer, Employee (Novartis); V. Bezlyak, Employee (Novartis).

Data sharing

Novartis is committed to sharing with qualified external researchers, access to patient-level data and supporting clinical documents from eligible studies. These requests are reviewed and approved by an independent review panel on the basis of scientific merit.

The data that support the findings of this study are available from JMDC Inc. but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of JMDC Inc.

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Corresponding author: Yuichiro Ogura

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Kawasaki, R., Bauer, M., Bezlyak, V. et al. Treatment patterns for retinal diseases in patients newly-treated with anti-VEGF agents: A retrospective analysis of claims data from the Japan Medical Data Center database. Jpn J Ophthalmol 65, 215–226 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-020-00802-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10384-020-00802-8

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