Analysis finds rising costs for nintedanib and falling costs for pirfenidone in pulmonary fibrosis, suggesting shifts in Medicare spending.
Author Summary Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease treated with two antifibrotic medications: nintedanib and pirfenidone. These therapies are costly, and little is known about how Medicare has been spending on them in recent years. Using publicly available Medicare data from 2019 to 2023, we found that spending on nintedanib has increased significantly, while spending on pirfenidone has dropped. The average cost per prescription rose for both drugs. These findings may reflect changes in prescribing habits, patient access, and insurance coverage, and highlight the need to monitor drug costs and usage to ensure affordable treatment for patients.
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RIZLY et al. (2025) studied this question.
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