Effects of cardiovascular single pill combinations compared with identical multi-pill therapies on healthcare cost and utilization in Germany
Publication: Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research
Abstract
Aim: This study assessed whether a single pill combination (SPC) is associated with lower direct healthcare costs. Materials & methods: Anonymized claims data of patients ≥18 years treated with drugs for cardiovascular (CV)-related diseases either as a single pill combination or multi-pill combination (follow-up to 1 year) were evaluated. After propensity score matching, 59,336 out of 1,369,840 patients were analyzed. Results: In all cohorts, patients receiving a single pill combination had a lower frequency of general practitioner and specialist visits. The patients also had a significantly lower ratio of all-cause hospitalization days and number of CV-related prescriptions as well as all-cause prescriptions (with one exception) compared with those receiving a multi-pill combination. Conclusion: Direct CV-related costs were significantly lower in four out of seven comparisons, with a trend toward lower costs in the other three comparisons.
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Published In
Pages: 411 - 422
PubMed: 35315281
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© 2022 The Authors. This work is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported License
History
Received: 11 August 2021
Accepted: 17 December 2021
Published online: 22 March 2022
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APONTIS PHARMA Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
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Effects of cardiovascular single pill combinations compared with identical multi-pill therapies on healthcare cost and utilization in Germany. (2022) Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. DOI: 10.2217/cer-2021-0197
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Citing Literature
- Burkhard Weisser, Adhärenz, Single Pill und Endpunkte – was ist gesichert und wie sieht die Wirklichkeit aus?, Die Innere Medizin, 10.1007/s00108-025-01965-7, 66, 10, (1100-1107), (2025).
- Zahra Pirayesh, Sima Sobhani Shahri, Azar Zare Noughabi, Marzieh Heshmati, Saeede Khosravi Bizhaem, Shima Jafariy, Toba Kazemi, Antihypertensive Drugs in an Iranian Population, Prevalence and Variety of Single Pill Combination (SPC), International Journal of High Risk Behaviors and Addiction, 10.5812/ijhrba-151471, 13, 4, (2025).
- Alberto Zambon, Evangelos Liberopoulos, Melania Dovizio, Chiara Veronesi, Luca Degli Esposti, Leopoldo Pérez de Isla, A real-world analysis of adherence, biochemical outcomes, and healthcare costs in patients treated with rosuvastatin/ezetimibe as single-pill combination vs. free combination in Italy, European Heart Journal Open, 10.1093/ehjopen/oeae074, 4, 5, (2024).
- Felix Götzinger, Marita Kieble, Andrea Espinosa Daudí, Michael Kunz, Lucas Lauder, Michael Böhm, Ulrich Laufs, Felix Mahfoud, Martin Schulz, Use of fixed-dose combinations for cardiovascular indications from 2018 to 2023: a nationwide population-based study, Journal of Hypertension, 10.1097/HJH.0000000000003789, 42, 10, (1720-1727), (2024).