BACKGROUND: Brimonidine tartrate ophthalmic solution 0.025% (BTOS) is indicated for the relief of redness of the eye due to minor eye irritations. Although BTOS is available over-the-counter (OTC) in the US, physicians may choose to prescribe the product. This study sought to understand more about BTOS prescriptions by reviewing medical and pharmacy claims databases.

METHOD: The IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Claims (LRx), Medical Claims (Dx), and Market Access Library data were used to analyze the demographics, baseline clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and treatment costs of patients using BTOS.

RESULTS: For the full year periods 2020–2023, data were available for 8,611 patients. The majority of patients were aged 18–74 years and included more females (58%) than males (42%). Insurance/payer types were 51.8% cash, 41.1% commercial with the remainder Medicaid, Medicare or unknown. While most prescriptions were from ophthalmologists (54.6%) and optometrists (39.5%), a broad range of health professionals including family medicine doctors, nurse practitioners, anesthetists/nurse anesthetists, and physician assistants also prescribed BTOS. Ophthalmic conditions recorded in ≥30% of patients included 'disorders of eyelid, lacrimal system and orbit' (44.1%), 'disorder of lens' (40.3%), 'disorders of conjunctiva' (36.5%), 'glaucoma' (35.9%), and 'disorders of ocular muscles, binocular movement, accommodation and refraction' (33.2%). 38.7% of patients were also taking ophthalmic corticosteroids, and 35.2% artificial tears; additional concomitant medications included anti-allergy medications, anti-infectives and anti-inflammatories. Analysis of reporting intervals demonstrates an average of 1.97 claims per patient, with an average of 74 days between fills. Time on therapy (time between index claim and date of last claim plus days of supply of last claim agent) averaged 51 days. A small proportion of patients (7%) remain on therapy for over 271 days.

CONCLUSION: A wide range of healthcare professionals choose to prescribe BTOS to their patients, with comorbidities and concomitant medications suggesting that ocular redness is often a secondary complaint. For the majority of patients, BTOS use is short term; however, the data presented here are likely to underestimate actual use as they do not capture the potential switch to OTC BTOS by patients.