Identifying trends in the duration of therapy of edaravone in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis receiving services from this national complex specialty pharmacy

Authors: Christine Miller, PharmD; Barbara Prosser, RPh; Derrek Blake, RN, BSN, IgCN – Soleo Health

Background

Edaravone was initially approved for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2017 as an intravenous formulation, followed by the approval of the oral formulation in 2022. The aim of this study is to identify trends in the duration of therapy for patients receiving edaravone through this national complex specialty pharmacy provider.

Methods

Dispensing records were evaluated for patients who received edaravone, intravenous and/or oral, from 01/01/2020–05/31/2023. A total of 714 patient records were reviewed.

Results

Discussion/Conclusion:

The authors of this study acknowledge several limitations. The data presented here is only from this national complex specialty pharmacy and does not represent if the patient was receiving edaravone prior to initiating services with this provider. Patients did switch from intravenous to oral edaravone within the study period, and this study did not aim to analyze the therapy duration differences between the two formulations.

While the expected survival is 2–5 years after ALS diagnosis, the average duration of therapy with edaravone was found to be 1.14 years, and this did differ between patients diagnosed with fast-progressing disease (1.19 years) compared to those with slow-progressing disease (1.92 years).

Authors of this presentation disclose the following concerning possible financial or personal relationships with commercial entities that may have a direct or indirect interest in the subject matter of this presentation: Nothing to disclose.

Originally presented at NEALS 2023 Annual Meeting