Adherence to generic cholesterol-lowering drugs linked to fall in total care costs

People who regularly take statins to reduce high cholesterol will see lower hospitalization rates according to a new study presented at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP)'s 25th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, USA. The study was conducted by pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics (Prime) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Minnesota.

The study demonstrated that adherence to generic statin therapy results in lower hospitalization rates which offset higher pharmacy costs resulting in lower total costs of care. This study differs from previous research which focused on adherence to brand statin therapy and showed that adherence was associated with lower medical events but with higher total costs, due in part to the higher drug costs of brand-name medications.

The study compared two years of hospitalization rates, medical costs and pharmacy costs among patients who were adherent and non-adherent to generic statins. Working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Minnesota, Prime used pharmacy and medical claims data from a commercially insured population of 1.2 million members continuously enrolled from 2007 through 2010.