Persistence with teriparatide in patients with osteoporosis: the UK experience

Introduction The objective of this paper was to determine the persistence with teriparatide at 12 months in all patients in the UK who were prescribed the treatment since its launch. Methods Virtually all patients prescribed teriparatide in the UK receive treatment through Healthcare at Home, Basingstoke, UK. Data was obtained to assess the start date, discontinuation date and reason for discontinuation in all patients receiving teriparatide since its launch. Persistence was defined as the number of patients continuing treatment. Results A total of 1,104 patients were included in the analysis. The median duration of use in all patients was 252 days. Of the 435 patients who were at least 12 months post-initiation of treatment, persistence was 87%. Forty-two patients (3.8%) had discontinued treatment due to adverse events. Conclusions This study demonstrates that persistence with teriparatide at 12 months is very high and is probably greater than that of existing oral therapies for osteoporosis. The reasons for the high persistence rates seen with teriparatide are likely to be multi-factorial. The high persistence rates should help to optimise the effectiveness of therapy in this group of high-risk patients.