Patient-Level Exposure to Actionable Pharmacogenomic Medications in a Nationally Representative Insurance Claims Database

Background: The prevalence of exposure to pharmacogenomic medications is well established but little is known about how long patients are exposed to these medications. Aim: Our objective was to describe the amount of exposure to actionable pharmacogenomic medications using patient-level measures among a large nationally representative population using an insurance claims database. Methods: Our retrospective cohort study included adults (18+ years) from the IQVIA PharMetrics(®) Plus for Academics claims database with incident fills of 72 Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium level A, A/B, or B medications from January 2012 through September 2018. Patient-level outcomes included the proportion of days covered (PDC), number of fills, and average days supplied per fill over a 12-month period. Results: Over 1 million fills of pharmacogenetic medications were identified for 605,355 unique patients. The mean PDC for all medications was 0.21 (SD 0.3), suggesting patients were exposed 21% (77 days) of the year. Medications with the highest PDC (0.55–0.89) included ivacaftor, tamoxifen, clopidogrel, HIV medications, transplant medications, and statins; with the exception of statins, these medications were initiated by fewer patients. Pharmacogenomic medications were filled an average of 2.8 times (SD 3.0, range 1–81) during the year following the medication’s initiation, and the average days supplied for each fill was 22.3 days (SD 22.4, range 1–180 days). Conclusion: Patient characteristics associated with more medication exposure were male sex, older age, and comorbid chronic conditions. Prescription fill data provide patient-level exposure metrics that can further our understanding of pharmacogenomic medication utilization and help inform opportunities for pharmacogenomic testing.