Treatment patterns for retinal diseases in patients newly-treated with anti-VEGF agents: A retrospective analysis of claims data from the Japan Medical Data Center database.

purposeTo describe treatment patterns in patients diagnosed with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), retinal vein occlusion (RVO), or diabetic macular edema (DME), newly-treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents as recorded in the Japanese Medical Data Center (JMDC) database. STUDY

designThis non-interventional, descriptive, retrospective, observational cohort study included insured Japanese patients aged ≥ 21 and ≤ 75 years at index date (anti-VEGF treatment initiation).

methodsPatients with minimum one claim in JMDC database with a diagnosis code for nAMD, RVO, or DME between October 2007-May 2015 and with minimum of one claim for anti-VEGF agents on or after the date of diagnosis were included. Frequency and proportion of claims submitted for anti-VEGF injections were assessed during 12 months post-index date.

resultsThe median (interquartile range) number of claims for anti-VEGF injections during 12 months post-index date were 3 (1, 4) for nAMD (n = 255), 2 (1, 3) for RVO (n = 223) and 2 (1, 4) for DME (n = 125) patients. Frequencies of nAMD, RVO and DME patients with one or more claims for a retinal disease treatment other than an anti-VEGF agent were 4 (1.57%), 59 (26.46%) and 68 (54.40%) during the 12 months pre-index date and 21 (8.24%), 85 (38.12%) and 62 (49.60%) in the 12 months post-index date, respectively.

conclusionsThe median number of anti-VEGF injections per patient was lower than those reported in clinical trials. Although various pre- and concomitant treatments were used in RVO and DME, anti-VEGF monotherapy was the first-line treatment in > 90% of nAMD patients.