Comparing Adoption of Breakthrough and "Me-too" Drugs among Medicare Beneficiaries: A Case Study of Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

"Me-too" drugs are new pharmaceuticals with the mechanism of action of an existing drug and are considered less innovative than breakthrough drugs. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the adoption patterns of the breakthrough drug sitagliptin and the "me-too" drug saxagliptin differed; and to assess whether the patterns differed between Medicare stand-alone (PDP) and Medicare-Advantage Part D (MA-PD) plans.

Methods

Pharmacy claims from a 5% random sample of Medicare Part D beneficiaries were used to identify all prescriptions filled for sitagliptin (breakthrough drug) and saxagliptin ("me-too" drug) between October 1, 2006 and December 31, 2011. The number of new sitagliptin and saxagliptin users by month and type of plan were plotted, and Bass diffus

SUBMITTER: Hernandez I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5614454 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature