Cost Considerations and Pathogen Coverage for Antibiotics are the Most Important Factors that Influence Hospital Formulary Decision Making

EXTON, Pa., Oct. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Arlington Medical Resources finds that antibiotic cost-related attributes such as drug price and administration costs, followed by pathogen coverage and efficacy, are the most important factors that influence hospital formulary decision making. Additionally, surveyed pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee members noted that pharmacoeconomic benefits, such as reducing the length of hospitalization, are key influencers in formulary assessments of antibiotics.

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The report entitled Hospital Formulary Insights^®: Anti-Infectives (US) 2013 also finds that activity against drug-resistant Gram-negative (GN) pathogens leads all other drug attributes associated with pathogen coverage among surveyed P&T committee members. This finding is consistent with the increasing prevalence of drug-resistant GN infections and with the high unmet need for new therapies against these drug-resistant pathogens. However, despite the availability of several effective anti-Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus therapies, surveyed hospital pharmacy directors still consider activity against this pathogen to be an important driver of formulary selections.

Analysis of the current formulary status of key antibiotics in represented hospitals indicates Forest's Teflaro and Optimer's Dificid have experienced formulary uptake, with the majority of surveyed P&T committee members reporting formulary inclusion of these agents at their hospitals. However, prescribing of these agents is typically restricted. Regarding the anticipated formulary placement of antibiotics in development, most respondents anticipate adding Cubist/Bayer's tedizolid to their hospital's formulary with restrictions if approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and priced similarly to linezolid.

"Our research suggests that the generic availability of linezolid is going to be a formidable challenge to tedizolid's formulary uptake, as cost-conscious P&T committees seek to minimize expenditures and perceived formulary redundancies," said Director of Infectious Diseases Brenda Perez-Cheeks, Ph.D. "However, focusing tedizolid messaging on areas where surveyed P&T committee members deem tedizolid to have important advantages over linezolid could encourage its placement on formularies and drive uptake."

Hospital Formulary Insights^®: Anti-Infectives (US) 2013 surveys over 100 hospital P&T committee decision makers, including hospital pharmacy directors and infectious diseases specialists, to gain insights into the impact of cost factors, clinical factors and product attributes on antibiotic formulary decisions. This study includes trending analysis from the 2011 study and ten years of AMR proprietary data on hospital formulary inclusion and restriction status for current therapies such as Cubist's Cubicin, Pfizer's Zyvox and Tygacil, Merck's Invanz, Janssen's Doribax, Theravance's Vibativ, last-resort gram-negative infections drugs and generic competition as well as an analysis of anticipated inclusion of emerging antibiotics, including Cubist's CXA-201 and Forest/AstraZeneca's CAZ-AVI.

About Arlington Medical Resources
Arlington Medical Resources (www.AMR-data.com) serves the market intelligence needs of the pharmaceutical and diagnostic imaging industries. Research includes clinical inpatient and hospital databases that directly link anti-infective drugs with indication/procedure, formulary and stocking status tracking studies, drug purchasing audits and diagnostic imaging procedure volume/contrast media usage audits. Arlington Medical Resources is a Decision Resources Group company.

About Decision Resources Group
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SOURCE Arlington Medical Resources