Foundation funding impacts treatment choice for patients with AMD
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SEATTLE — Funding from the Chronic Disease Foundation impacts the decision to stay on a chosen therapy in patients with age-related macular degeneration, according to a poster presentation.
“Access to funding impacts a patient’s choice in what treatment they want to do, especially because anti-VEGF drugs are really expensive these days,” Cassie Papproth told Healio at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting. “Most of the time, patients can’t afford them out of pocket.”
Researchers looked at how a two-week unfunded period impacted medication choice among 201 patients who received intravitreal injections with foundation funding.
During the unfunded period, 79% of patients switched from an on-label pharmaceutical to off-label bevacizumab.
Researchers then tried to determine if there were any differences during a period where there was no loss of funding. They found that only 21% of patients made a switch to off-label drugs during a 3-month funded period, while the majority of patients switched to a different on-label drug or stayed on their original medication.
“A lot of times, the foundation funding that’s available to patients is usually just for one specific drug,” Papproth said. “The Chronic Disease Foundation lets the patient choose which drug, just a different on-label. Seeing that it impacts and helps patients to stay on certain drugs is pretty interesting.”
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Papproth C, et al. Impact of consistent foundation funding for on-label intraocular pharmaceuticals. Presented at: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting; May 5-9, 2024; Seattle.
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