Highlights
- •Patients with multiple sclerosis had mean of 0.51 relapses/year before fingolimod.
- •Relapse rates decreased by >50% in each year of 3-year post-initiation period.
- •Median time on treatment was 33 months among patients initiating fingolimod.
Abstract
Objective
To assess real-world durability of reduction in relapse rates among patients with
multiple sclerosis (MS) receiving fingolimod therapy over a longer-term period of
follow-up.
Methods
Patients with MS who initiated fingolimod were identified from a US claims database
(January 1, 2009 to September 30, 2016) and followed for 3 years post-initiation.
Annualized relapse rates (ARRs) were calculated during the 1-year pre-initiation period,
and during each year over the 3-year follow-up period. Time from fingolimod initiation
to discontinuation (≥60-day treatment gap) was also summarized.
Results
Among 1599 fingolimod initiators, 1158 (72%) had continuous fingolimod use up to the
start of year 2 and 937 (59%) had continuous fingolimod use up to the start of year
3. The mean baseline ARR during the 1-year pre-initiation period for all initiators
was 0.51. After fingolimod initiation, mean ARRs were consistently lower in each year
of follow-up: 0.25 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.28) in year 1 for all fingolimod initiators, 0.22
(0.18, 0.25) in year 2 for patients with continuous fingolimod use up to the start
of year 2, and 0.23 (0.19, 0.27) in year 3 for patients with continuous fingolimod
use up to the start of year 3. Median time on treatment was 33 months for all patients
initiating fingolimod.
Conclusions
Patients with MS who received continuous fingolimod therapy experienced a sustained
reduction in relapse rates (>50% vs. baseline) during each year of a 3-year follow-up
period.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 22, 2019
Accepted:
January 21,
2019
Received in revised form:
January 14,
2019
Received:
August 7,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.
