Comparative Economic Outcomes in Patients with Focal Seizure Initiating First-Line Eslicarbazepine Acetate Monotherapy versus Generic Antiseizure Drugs

Darshan Mehta,1 Matthew Davis,2 Andrew J Epstein,3 Brian Wensel,1 Todd Grinnell,4 G Rhys Williams1 1Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Marlborough, MA, USA; 2Medicus Economics, LLC, Milton, MA, USA; 3Medicus Economics, LLC, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 4Medical Affairs, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Marlborough, MA, USACorrespondence: Darshan MehtaAssociate Director, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc, 84 Waterford Drive, Marlborough, MA, 01752, USATel +1-774-369-7913Email Darshan.Mehta@sunovion.comObjective: To examine the association between initiating first-line (1L) monotherapy with eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) vs a generic antiseizure drug (ASD) and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and charges in adults with treated focal seizures (FS).Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of Symphony Health’s Integrated Dataverse® open-source claims data. Two cohorts were identified as having initiated 1L monotherapy with ESL or literature-defined generic ASDs. Linear regression models with person fixed effects and inverse probability treatment weights assessed the relative additional changes in HCRU and charges among patients who received ESL compared to generic ASD.Results: A total of 250 and 43,220 patients initiated ESL (48.3 years; 57.2% female) or a generic ASD (54.5 years; 58.1% female), respectively. Compared to patients initiating a generic ASD, patients treated with ESL had additional reductions of 11.8 percentage points in the likelihood of any all-cause outpatient visits (P< 0.001), 7.4 percentage points in the likelihood of any emergency department (ED) visits (P=0.013), and 22.7 percentage points in the likelihood of any FS-related outpatient visits (P< 0.001). Patients initiating ESL had greater reductions in mean charges for all-cause medical ($2620; P=0.002), outpatient ($1995; P=0.005), and non-FS-related medical ($2708; P< 0.001) services. Patients initiating ESL had greater relative