Search

Raquel Lahoz is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland, and owns Novartis shares. None. Despite the availability of effective low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering drugs, ∼80% of patients with established ASCVD fall short of achieving and maintaining LDL-C levels <70 mg/dL, highlighting the need for innovative new LDL-C lowering therapies. Inclisiran is a novel small-interfering RNA (siRNA) that effectively reduces circulating LDL-C. Administered as a single subcutaneous injection initially, again at 3 months, and then every 6 months, inclisiran has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in December 2020 for adult patients with hypercholesterolemia as an adjunct to diet who require additional lowering of LDL-C despite receiving other lipid-lowering therapies and by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2021. This study aimed to assess real-world patient characteristics, adherence and persistence for patients being initiated with inclisiran in Germany. This retrospective non-interventional study used the IQVIA LRx prescription database and included adult patients being initiated with inclisiran treatment between February 2021 and October 2021 with a 6-month lookback period. For the adherence and persistence analyses, a subgroup of patients with a first inclisiran prescription recorded between February and June 2021 was selected, allowing for at least 4 months follow-up, up to October 2021. A total of 697 patients receiving at least one dose of inclisiran between February- October 2021 were included in this study. Mean age of patients was 63 years (50% females) and 81% were ≥ 55 years old. Majority of patients were prescribed inclisiran by their nephrologists (42%) and cardiologists (30%). Of the 334 patients receiving their first inclisiran dose between February-June 2021, the second dose was also recorded for 257 (77%) patients until the time of the analysis; median time between the two doses was 3 months and 91% (233) of patients received the second dose within 4 months of treatment initiation. This study shows early results from one of the first real-world studies describing the characteristics of patients being initiated with inclisiran with majority returning for their second dose within 4 months. Future real-world studies with longer follow-up are needed to evaluate the long-term adherence and persistence as well as effectiveness of inclisiran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]