Assessment of treatment patterns associated with injectable disease-modifying therapy among relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis patients

Background Availability of oral disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) may affect injectable DMT (iDMT) treatment patterns. Objective The objective of this paper is to evaluate iDMT persistency, reasons for persistency lapses, and outcomes among newly diagnosed RRMS patients. Methods Medical records of 300 RRMS patients initiated on iDMT between 2008 and 2013 were abstracted from 18 US-based neurology clinics. Eligible patients had ≥3 visits: pre-iDMT initiation, iDMT initiation (index), and ≥1 visit within 24 months post-index. MS-related symptoms, relapses, iDMT treatment patterns (i.e. persistency, discontinuation, switching, and restart), and reasons for non-persistency were tracked for 24 months. Results At 24 months, iDMT persistency was 61.0%; 28.0% of patients switched to another DMT, 8.0% discontinued, and 3.0% stopped and restarted the same iDMT. The most commonly identified reasons for non-persistency were perceived lack of efficacy (22.2%), adverse events (18.8%), and fear of needles/self-injecting (9.4%). At 24 months, 38.0% of patients had experienced a relapse and 11.0% had changes in MRI lesion counts. Patients without MS-related symptoms at index reported increases in the incidence of these symptoms at 24 months. Conclusions Non-persistency with iDMT remains an issue in the oral DMT age. Many patients still experienced relapses and disease progression, and should consider switching to more effective therapies.