This German claims data study included continuously insured persons with at least two outpatient diagnoses and/or one inpatient diagnosis of T2DM if they started EMPA, DPP-4i, or GLP-1-RA in 2015–2018. Healthcare costs were assessed from therapy initiation until the end of data availability, death, or therapy discontinuation and compared among propensity score matched cohorts. Although the individual clinical patient profile and physician assessment are paramount in treatment decisions, substantial differences in the economic impact of different antidiabetic therapies should be considered.

Anonymized claims data of patients ≥18 years treated with drugs for cardiovascular (CV)-related diseases either as a single pill combination or multi-pill combination were evaluated. After propensity score matching, 59,336 out of 1,369,840 patients were analyzed. In all cohorts, patients receiving a single pill combination had a lower frequency of general practitioner and specialist visits. The patients also had a significantly lower ratio of all-cause hospitalization days and number of CV-related prescriptions as well as all-cause prescriptions (with one exception) compared with those receiving a multi-pill combination.

In an explorative study, we analyzed anonymized claims data sets of patients treated with CV drugs for hypertension and/or CV disorders who were insured by the German AOK PLUS statutory health fund covering 01/07/2012-30/06/2018. Patients aged ≥18 years who received either an SPC or MPC with identical drugs were followed for up to one year. A one-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) was applied within patient groups who started identical drug combinations, and results were reported as incidence rate ratios (IRRs) as well as hazard ratios (HRs). After PSM, data from 59,336 patients were analyzed. In 30 out of 56 IRR analyses, the superiority of SPC over MPC was shown. In 5 out of 7 comparisons, the HR for the composite outcome of all-cause death and all-cause hospitalizations was in favor of the SPC regimen.