Economic burden of illness among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) associated with connective tissue disorders (CTD)

Exploring the Economic Burden of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Its Relation to Disease Severity and Treatment Escalation: A Systematic Literature Review

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a highly progressive disease characterized by luminal narrowing of the pulmonary arteries, leading to progressive dyspnoea and restricted functional capacity, which can ultimately result in right ventricular failure and death. Treatment goals include improving functional class and walk distance, recovering right ventricular function, halting disease progression, and improving survival. PAH carries a high mortality rate, and treatment escalation is a common feature of disease management. Due to the substantial impact of PAH, a high economic burden has been observed. A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to assess the contemporary economic burden of PAH, including the impact of disease severity and treatment escalation.

METHODS

An electronic database search was conducted and supplemented with a hand search of health technology assessments and conference materials. Studies were included from 2012 to 2024, with no restrictions on geographical location. The inclusion criteria specified that adult patients with PAH (≥ 18 years) and only English language studies were captured.

RESULTS

The review included 148 studies and evaluations, 110 of which were observational studies, 14 were economic evaluations, and 24 were health technology assessments. The studies identified reported on several healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) outcomes including hospitalization, PAH-related hospitalization, inpatient visits, emergency department (ED) visits, intensive care unit (ICU) visits, and outpatient visits. Cost data were also reported, including total costs and costs for each of the above-mentioned types of HCRU, as well as specific costs such as pharmacy and drug costs. The results provide an overview of the high economic burden caused by PAH, indicating that the economic burden increases with increasing severity; reported mean monthly costs were as high as US $14,614 (cost converted to USD 2024) for the highest severity group. These data also demonstrated the impact of PAH-specific therapies in reducing HCRU, with efficacious treatment shifting management from an inpatient to outpatient setting (i.e., reduced inpatient admissions and length of stay). Further, while treatment escalation resulted in increased pharmacy costs, this was offset by a reduction in HCRU, including hospitalizations and ED visits. Timely diagnosis was also associated with reduced economic burden, as patients with a longer delay prior to diagnosis reported a higher mean number of monthly hospitalizations, ICU stays, and ED visits. Functional limitation is a common feature of PAH disease progression and can severely impact a patient's ability to work. This SLR identified few studies that investigated such outcomes as well as broader indirect costs, such as out-of-pocket costs and productivity loss.

DISCUSSION

This study highlights the considerable economic burden associated with PAH, which is particularly evident for HCRU, and the importance of effective disease management in reducing this burden. Additionally, these findings demonstrate the economic value of treatment escalation and suggest higher drug costs can potentially be offset through improved patient outcomes and associated reductions in HCRU.

Impact of treatment escalation on rehospitalization among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) poses a substantial burden, including hospitalizations. This study assessed the impact of treatment escalation on rehospitalization. The Komodo Research Data (10/2015-03/2022) was used to identify adults with ≥ 1 PAH-related hospitalization (index: first hospitalization). Patients on monotherapy pre-index were assigned to the Escalation-to-combination cohort (treatment added ≤ 90 days post-index) or the Monotherapy cohort (no treatment change ≤ 90 days post-index). A sensitivity analysis was conducted among all patients who were treated pre-index. Entropy balancing was used to create cohorts with similar characteristics. All-cause hospitalizations per-patient-per-month (PPPM) during ≤ 12 months post-index were compared across balanced cohorts. A total of 203 and 1252 patients were included in the Escalation-to-combination and Monotherapy cohorts, respectively (mean age: 61 vs. 62 years; 67% vs. 68% female); most received PDE5i monotherapy pre-index (65.3% vs. 75.9%). Post-index, 84.5% of the Escalation-to-combination cohort increased to dual therapy, most commonly PDE5i + ERA (39.4%) and PDE5i + PPA (24.7%). Rehospitalization was lower in the Escalation-to-combination than Monotherapy cohort (incidence rate ratio [95% confidence interval]: 0.69 [0.55-0.90]; p < 0.001); the sensitivity analysis yielded similar results. Treatment escalation was associated with a lower rehospitalization rate, suggesting that earlier escalation and broader use of combination therapy may reduce PAH burden.

Approval status of essential therapeutic drugs for systemic sclerosis versus that of drugs for rheumatoid arthritis

Objective

Systemic sclerosis, a rare disease characterized by chronic multisystem fibrosis, requires lifelong management, necessitating enough insurance coverage for the patient. Official drug approval is the first step to ensuring that the drug is covered by insurance. In this study, we investigated the approval status of essential therapeutic drugs for systemic sclerosis across eight countries and compared it with that of drugs for rheumatoid arthritis.

Methods

The essential therapeutic drug lists for systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis were taken from the guidelines of the American College of Rheumatology and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology. Official drug approval status for the selected drugs was confirmed by searching representative Internet databases from eight countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

Results

A total of 21 and 16 drugs were selected for systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. The drug approval rates of the 21 drugs for systemic sclerosis varied among countries. Most drugs used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, which were developed recently and are expensive, are approved by most countries; however, most older drugs-which are still essential for management of Raynaud's phenomenon, digital ulcers, interstitial lung disease, and skin fibrosis-are not approved by most countries. By contrast, almost all of the 16 drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, whether old or new, are approved by most countries.

Conclusion

Approval rates for drugs used to treat systemic sclerosis, a rare disease, are much lower than those for drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, approval rates of essential therapeutic drugs for systemic sclerosis need to improve, which will benefit patients by increasing the number of drugs covered by insurance.

Real-World Treatment Patterns Among Patients with Connective Tissue Disorder-Related Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in the United States: A Retrospective Claims-Based Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Connective tissue disorders (CTDs) are the most frequent diseases associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Despite advances in treatment, the prognosis of CTD-related PAH remains poor. To help identify areas for improvement in the management of CTD-related PAH, this study assessed real-world PAH treatment patterns in this population in the US.

METHODS

Eligible adult patients with PAH initiated on a PAH treatment (index date: 1st initiation date) were identified from Optum's de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database (10/01/2015-09/30/2021) and categorized into mutually exclusive cohorts (CTD + PAH; PAH) based on the presence of CTD diagnosis claims. Treatment patterns were assessed from the index date to the earliest of death or end of continuous insurance eligibility, or data availability. Treatment persistence was assessed using Kaplan-Meier analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 4751 patients were included (CTD + PAH: n = 728, mean follow-up of 18.8 months; PAH: n = 4023, mean follow-up of 19.6 months). For both cohorts, the most common first treatment regimens were sildenafil (CTD + PAH: 38.7%; PAH: 51.5%), tadalafil (10.0%; 9.4%), and macitentan (8.1%; 5.4%) monotherapy; these were also the most frequent agents included in any of the first 3 treatment regimens. Combination therapy was more frequent in the CTD + PAH versus PAH cohort (any regimen: 40.9% vs. 27.2%; 1st treatment regimen: 26.9% vs. 18.5%; 2nd: 52.8% vs. 42.0%; 3rd: 55.2% vs. 48.5%). Treatment persistence was similar across cohorts and the first three treatment regimens, with persistence rates ranging from 42.6 to 49.7% at 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Treatment patterns were generally similar between the CTD + PAH and PAH cohorts, although combination therapy was more frequent in the CTD + PAH cohort. Both cohorts may benefit from broader use of all available PAH treatment classes, including combination therapy. Considering the life-threatening nature of PAH, our findings also highlight the need to address the low persistence rates with PAH therapies regardless of etiology.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on care disruptions, outcomes, and costs in patients receiving pulmonary arterial hypertension-specific therapy in the United States of America: An observational study

Regular expert follow-up, risk assessment, and early therapeutic intervention minimize worsening of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). COVID-19 lockdown measures were challenging for chronic disease management. This retrospective, longitudinal analysis used US claims data (January 12, 2016 to September 11, 2021) for patients treated with PAH-specific medication to compare in-person outpatient and specialist visits, telemedicine visits, and PAH-related tests during 6-month assessment periods pre- and immediately post-COVID-19. Hospitalizations, costs, and outcomes were compared in patients with and without care disruptions (no in-person or telemedicine outpatient visits in immediate post-COVID-19 period). Patients in the immediate post-COVID-19 (N = 599) versus the pre-COVID-19 period (N = 598) had fewer in-person outpatient visits (mean 1.27 vs. 2.12) and in-person specialist visits (pulmonologist, 22.9% vs. 37.0% of patients; cardiologist, 27.5% vs. 33.8%); and more telemedicine visits (mean 0.45 vs. 0.02). In the immediate post-COVID-19 period, patients were less likely to have a PAH-related test versus the pre-COVID-19 period (incidence rate ratio: 0.700; 95% confidence interval: 0.615-0.797), including electrocardiograms (41.7% vs. 54.2%) and 6-minute walk distance tests (16.2% vs. 24.9%). In the immediate post-COVID-19 period, 48 patients had care disruptions and, in the following year, required more hospital days than those without care disruptions (N = 240) (median 10 vs. 5 days in total) and had higher overall hospitalization costs (median US$34,755 vs. US$20,090). Our findings support the need for minimizing care disruptions to potentially avoid incremental post-disruption healthcare utilization and costs among patients with serious chronic diseases such as PAH.