Impact of timing of nintedanib initiation among patients newly diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

While nintedanib treatment has been shown to slow the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in patients across varying levels of lung function, the effect of treatment timing on outcomes has not been examined. We assessed hospitalization risk and medical costs among patients with IPF based on the timing of nintedanib initiation after IPF diagnosis. This retrospective administrative claims study included data from 04/01/2014-09/30/2019 for patients aged ≥40 years who initiated nintedanib within 1 year of IPF diagnosis. Patients were assigned to study cohorts based on the time from IPF diagnosis to nintedanib initiation. All-cause hospitalization and all-cause medical costs were modeled using marginal structural models including inverse probability weights to adjust for both baseline and time-varying characteristics. Of 11,195 patients diagnosed with IPF during the identification period, 449 met the study selection criteria (mean age 72.3 years, 68% male, mean follow-up time 13.3 months). Adjusted hospitalization risk and medical costs both varied significantly by the timing of nintedanib initiation (p