Ivacaftor reduced hospitalizations in CF

Ivacaftor, a therapy that targets the G551D CFTR gene mutation to treat cystic fibrosis, significantly reduced hospital admission rates in patients with cystic fibrosis with a variety of mutations, according to results published May 7 in Health Affairs.

The study involved 143 patients being treated with ivacaftor between February 2012 and February 2015. In 2014, the FDA expanded its approval for the use of ivacaftor by cystic fibrosis patients to include nine additional mutations, and patients with these mutations were included in this study.

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Ms. Feng, who is senior director for policy and advocacy at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and her colleagues analyzed administrative claims data from the Truven Health Analytics Market Scan Commercial Research Database. All of the claims were for patients from the United States with employer-sponsored insurance plans. Eligibility criteria included an ICD-9 CM diagnosis of cystic fibrosis on one or more inpatient claims or two or more outpatient claims at least 30 days apart, a prescription claim for ivacaftor monotherapy, being at least 6 years of age at the time of the first filled prescription, and 12 months of continuous enrollment before and after the first filled prescription.

The “pre-ivacaftor” period was defined as the 12 months before the first filled prescription. The “post-ivacaftor” period was defined as the 12 months after the first filled prescription. For each period, the numbers and percentages of patients hospitalized were calculated, for any reason and for cystic fibrosis–related reasons. Hospitalization rates also were calculated as numbers of admissions per person-year, the authors said.

Data also were analyzed for two subcohorts: the 86 patients who started using ivacaftor between Feb. 6, 2012, and Feb. 21, 2014, under the initial Food and Drug Administration label; and the 57 patients who initiated use between Feb. 22, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2015, under the expanded FDA label, which included nine additional genetic mutations.

Of the 143 patients who had filled prescriptions for ivacaftor, 63% were aged 18 years or older. The rate of overall inpatient admissions decreased 55%, from 0.57 admissions per person-year in the pre-ivacaftor period to 0.26 admissions per person-year in the post-ivacaftor period, the investigators reported.