Supplementary materials: Effects of cardiovascular single pill combinations compared with identical multi-pill therapies on healthcare cost and utilization in Germany

<b>These are peer-reviewed supplementary materials for the article '</b><b>Effects of cardiovascular single pill </b><b>combinations compared with identical </b><b>multi-pill therapies on healthcare cost and </b><b>utilization in Germany</b><b>' published in the</b><b> </b><b><i>Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research</i></b><b>.</b><b>Supplementary figure 1</b><b>Supplementary figure 2</b><b>Supplementary figure 3</b><b>Supplementary table 1</b><b>Supplementary table 2</b><b>Aim:</b> This study assessed whether a single pill combination (SPC) is associated with lower direct healthcare costs. <b>Materials &amp; methods:</b> 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 (follow up to 1 year) were evaluated. After propensity score matching, 59,336 out of 1,369,840 patients were analyzed.<b> Results:</b> 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. <b>Conclusion:</b> Direct CV-related costs were significantly lower in four out of seven comparisons, with a trend toward lower costs in the other three comparisons.