Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics

Table 3 Unadjusted measures of abandonment, adherence and persistence, by index oral oncolytic received and pharmacy channel

	Erlotinib				Imatinib				Capecitabine
Characteristic^a	Specialty		Traditional Retail		Specialty		Traditional Retail		Specialty		Traditional Retail
Number Prescribed Index Oncolytic	4774		10,297		2292		4941		4906		15,156
Abandonment of Index Prescription	^f				^f				^f
Approved Without Challenges, N (%)	4643	97.3%	9644	93.7%	2271	99.1%	4688	94.9%	4817	98.2%	14,456	95.4%
Initial Challenge but Overcome, N (%)	66	1.4%	358	3.5%	7	0.3%	157	3.2%	45	0.9%	360	2.4%
Initial Challenge Unknown if Overcome, N (%)^b	3	0.1%	25	0.2%	0	0.0%	3	0.1%	0	0.0%	15	0.1%
Abandoned, N (%)^c	50	1.0%	239	2.3%	11	0.5%	79	1.6%	36	0.7%	286	1.9%
Unknown, N (%)^d	12	0.3%	31	0.3%	3	0.1%	14	0.3%	8	0.2%	39	0.3%
Adherence - Proportion of Days Covered between the First and Last Fill
MPR Mean (SD)	92.1 (14.0)^f		89.6 (17.1)		86.8 (18.9)^f		82.5 (21.2)		80.7 (20.4)^f		70.6 (22.5)
Number with >1 Fill	3439		7091		2046		4230		3709		10,898
Adherent, N (%)	2888	84.0%^f	5691	80.3%	1527	74.6%^f	2813	66.5%	2171	58.5%^f	4038	37.1%
Persistence^e - Time until Discontinuation of Index Oncolytic (days)
Number Filling Prescription for Index Oncolytic	4709		10,002		2278		4845		4862		14,816
Mean (SD)	146.0 (166.7)^f		135.8 (169.9)		423.2 (359.0)^f		394.5 (354.9)		114.2 (120.2)^f		103.2 (115.3)
Median	89		79		324		292		78		63
Minimum–Maximum	0–1441		0–1613		0–1622		0–1601		0–1316		0–1397

Note: NDC codes 50242006201, 50242006301, 50242006401, 54569584700, 54569584800, 54868529000, 54868544700, 54868547400 used to identify erlotinib, NDC codes 00004110020, 00004110051, 00004110116, 00004110150, 54569571700, 54868414300-54868414303, 54868526000-54868526009 used to identify capecitabine, NDC codes 00078037366, 00078040105, 00078040134, 00078040215, 00078043815, 54569584600, 54868528900-54868528904, 54868542700-54868542703 used to identify imatinib
Abbreviations: SD standard deviation, N number of patients
^aGroup comparisons were made using 2-sided Pearson chi-square for categorical measures and t-test statistics for continuous measures within each index oncolytic population, p-values are presented for comparisons using traditional retail as reference group
^bUnable to determine if hurdle overcome because data were censored
^cAbandonment measure refers to whether patient was able to successfully fill prescription within 90 days following an initial challenge (if no, prescription was considered abandoned)
^dNo information provided regarding the patients first fill status, cannot determine if prescription was filled
^eTime until discontinuation (in days) of index oral oncolytic, allowing for a 60 day gap in therapy between the run-out date of the medication and the subsequent fill
^f P < 0.001

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