Prasugrel Use in Real Life: A Report From the Outpatient Setting in France

The objective of this study was to provide descriptive statistics on patterns of prasugrel usage in the outpatient setting in France. This retrospective study was conducted to describe treatment patterns for prasugrel in the outpatient setting in France using the Intercontinental Marketing Services (IMS) Disease Analyzer database, which collates electronic medical records updated by a nationally representative database of 1200 French general practitioners (GPs). Anonymous data were collected prospectively at each follow-up visit. The study population consisted of patients with ≥1 prescription for prasugrel in the outpatient setting from its launch date to 3 years post-launch. Patients were followed up from the date of the first prescription for prasugrel recorded in the database until they died, changed GP, or reached the end of the study, whichever came first. In France, the IMS Disease Analyzer included 1052 patients receiving ≥1 prescription of prasugrel from January 2010 until October 2012. Eighty-five percent of the population was male. The mean age was 58 years; 94.3% were age <75 years, and 95.0% weighed ≥60 kg. Of the total, 99.8% of patients were prescribed a daily maintenance dose of 10 mg, and 0.2% had a history of transient ischemic attack/stroke. Concomitant medications were antiplatelet agents (100%; aspirin, 93.7%), lipid-lowering agents (90.1%), β-blockers (83.7%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (62.2%), and anti-ulcer medications (55.1%). The results reflect good usage of prasugrel by French GPs in the outpatient setting, with excellent implementation of the Prasugrel European Summary Product Characteristics.