Korean J Clin Pharm.  2016 Sep;26(3):220-229. 10.0000/kjcp.2016.26.3.220.

Analysis of Drug Utilization in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Pharmacy, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea.
  • 2College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Busan 49241, Republic of Korea. jenk@pusan.ac.kr

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The treatment goal for patients with chronic hepatitis B infection is to prevent progression of the disease to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Current therapies include standard and pegylated interferon-alfa and nucleoside/nucleotide analogues: lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir, telbivudine, clevudine, and tenofovir. This study aims to analyze changes in the prescribing patterns of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) medications in South Korea between 2013 and 2014.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted using National Patients Sample data compiled by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service from 2013 and 2014. Patients with CHB were identified with Korean Standard Classification of Diseases code-6 (B18.0 and B18.1) and those who were maintaining active prescriptions with CHB medications covering the index date (December 1(st), each year) were included. The utilization of antiviral therapy was investigated during 2013 and 2014.
RESULTS
A total of 4,204 and 4,552 patients in 2013 and 2014 respectively, were included in the analysis. The proportion of male patients was two of third and the patients 41-60 years old accounted for 60% of all analyzed patients. The most utilized drug was entecavir (55.1% in 2013 and 44.8% in 2014) and the second most utilized drug was tenofovir in both years (18.8% in 2013 and 29.0% in 2014). The percentage of combination therapy was 13.6% and 13.1% in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The proportion of tenofovir prescriptions was increased in 2014 compared with 2013.
CONCLUSION
With the development of new drugs and the changes in clinical practice guidelines, the prescription pattern of the antiviral agents for patients with CHB has changed. The rate of utilization of tenofovir has increased.

Keyword

Chronic hepatitis B; drug utilization; oral antiviral agents

MeSH Terms

Antiviral Agents
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
Classification
Cross-Sectional Studies
Drug Utilization*
Fibrosis
Hepatitis B, Chronic*
Hepatitis, Chronic*
Humans
Insurance, Health
Korea
Lamivudine
Male
Prescriptions
Tenofovir
Antiviral Agents
Lamivudine
Tenofovir
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