Yet prescription rates remain substantially lower than that seen for other guideline-recommended cardiometabolic therapies
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, March 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Barriers for proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitor (PCSK9i) use persist for cholesterol management, according to a research letter published online Feb. 16 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Diane E. MacDougall, from the Family Heart Foundation in Fernandina Beach, Florida, and colleagues characterized PCSK9i uptake and durable PCSK9i coverage status using U.S. health care claims data sourced from Symphony Health (July 2015 and December 2021).
The researchers found that 238,704 patients were newly prescribed a PCSK9i from 2015 to 2018, which increased to 470,018 patients from 2019 to 2021. The number of patients with paid prescriptions in the first 90 days rose by 2.7-fold from 85,215 to 234,703 during the two time periods. Yet paid prescription rates for initial PCSK9i coverage (35.70 to 49.93 percent) remained substantially lower than that for other guideline-recommended cardiometabolic therapies (ranging from 68.49 to 84.45 percent).
“Patients still experience substantial challenges getting the PCSK9i that have been prescribed for them by their medical team, despite guidelines recommending their use and extensive evidence documenting their role in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction and the prevention of heart attack or stroke,” MacDougall said in a statement.
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