COVID-19 impact on multiple myeloma prescribing patterns.

Authors

null

Elias Pittos

CVS Health, Lincoln, RI

Elias Pittos , Dipti Shah , Kelly McAuliff , Amanda McCarthy , William Cavers , Rashmi Grover , Lucia Feczko , Elisea Avalos-Reyes , Kjel Andrew Johnson

Organizations

CVS Health, Lincoln, RI

Research Funding

No funding received

Background: COVID-19 has impacted several areas of oncology patient care, most notably the reduction of patient visits for treatments. Standard treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) involves a combination of intravenous (IV) and oral therapies. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact COVID-19 had on IV and oral medication prescribing patterns pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic among MM patients. Methods: This is a retrospective review of adult MM patients insured by a large commercial and Medicare health plan in the United States who started a new IV or oral MM agent during the study period. To assess the impact of COVID-19 on IV and oral medication prescribing patterns, we compareda pre-COVID period (March 1-August 31, 2019) to a COVID period (March 1-August 31, 2020). We utilized medical and pharmacy claims to identify patients and calculated new therapy starts per newly diagnosed patient (defined as the number of patients starting a new IV or oral medication for MM divided by the total number of patients with a first indication date of MM within the study timeframe). We compared rates using a Chi-square test; p-values ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 1,754 patients were enrolled in the study; there were no significant differences in demographic characteristics pre and during COVID-19 between the two groups with respect to age (67.05 vs. 66.64; p=0.45), gender (p=0.80), insurance plan type (p=0.17), geographical region (p=0.26) and medication (p=0.59). During COVID-19, the number of newly diagnosed MM patients decreased by 22% (9,657 to 7,560) and the total number of new therapy starts decreased by 11% (930 to 824). When looking at rates of new therapy starts per newly diagnosed patient, both IV (11%; p=0.03) and oral (51%; p=0.03) medication rates significantly increased. Additionally, there were significant increases in new therapy start rates by region in the Northeast for oral (157%; p<0.01) and West for IV (32%; p=0.02) medications. There were no significant differences in new start rates by insurance plan type (all p>0.08). Conclusions: While the total count of new therapy starts, a proxy for new diagnoses, decreased during COVID-19, the rate of new starts for both IV and oral therapies for patients diagnosed with MM significantly increased. These increased start rates may be explained by a remarkable 22% drop in the total number of newly diagnosed MM patients during COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, further study is warranted to understand how COVID-19 may impact IV vs. oral usage in MM.

Patient demographics.

Pre-COVID

N = 930
During COVID

N = 824
p-value
Age (mean (SD))
67.05 (10.93)
66.64 (11.52)
0.45
Gender = M (%)
517 (55.6)
464 (56.3)
0.80
Line of Business (%)
0.17
 Commercial fully insured
56 (6.0)
68 (8.3)
 Commercial self-insured
293 (31.5)
262 (31.8)
 Medicare
581 (62.5)
494 (60.0)
 Region (%)
0.26
 Mid America
230 (24.7)
200 (24.3)
 Northeast
316 (34.0)
267 (32.4)
 Southeast
237 (25.5)
197 (23.9)
 West
147 (15.8)
160 (19.4)

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Publication Only

Session Title

Hematologic Malignancies—Plasma Cell Dyscrasia

Track

Hematologic Malignancies

Sub Track

Multiple Myeloma

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 16; abstr e20027)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.16_suppl.e20027

Abstract #

e20027

Abstract Disclosures

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