Purpose: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder affecting almost 2.8 million people globally, approximately 80-85% of whom have the relapsing-remitting form of the disease (RRMS). There are several autoinjectors available for the administration of injectable disease-modifying therapies for the treatment of MS. The objective of the current study was to gain an understanding of factors related to patients' and nurses' autoinjector preferences, and to evaluate two autoinjectors for glatiramer acetate (MyJECT™ and CSYNC™) against those preferences.
Patients and methods: Patients with RRMS and nurses experienced in training patients with an autoinjector were recruited from 12 health centers in Germany. Surveys were administered to patients and nurses and their answers to 13 questions over five categories (participants' characteristics, important autoinjector attributes, autoinjector performance, satisfaction with the autoinjector devices and demographics) were scored, where appropriate, using a 5-point Likert scale.
Results: A total of 15 patients and 15 nurses were included in the study. Overall, the top four most important attributes, for both nurses and patients, were ease of handling, ability to use independently, ease of gripping the autoinjector and ease of self-injection. MyJECT™ received a mean score of at least 4.5 (out of 5) on more attributes than CSYNC™ and satisfaction with both autoinjectors was high.
Conclusion: Nurses and patients with RRMS were highly satisfied with both the MyJECT™ and CSYNC™ autoinjectors, with scores suggesting that MyJECT™ performs better on the attributes they identified as most important. All patients currently using the MyJECT™ were likely or highly likely to recommend it to another patient with RRMS.
Keywords: CSYNC™; MyJECT™; autoinjector; disease-modifying therapies; glatiramer acetate; relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis is a disorder of the brain and spinal cord that affects almost 3 million people worldwide. Some of the multiple sclerosis treatments may need patients to inject the medicine at regular intervals. There are several different injection devices to administer the drugs for the management of multiple sclerosis, these are called autoinjectors. MyJECT™ and CSYNC™ are two different autoinjectors that patients can use with a drug called glatiramer acetate. The current study was done to look at what features of autoinjectors do patients and nurses think are most important. To do this, a survey was completed among “multiple sclerosis nurses” and “patients with a type of multiple sclerosis called relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis” who visited one of 12 health centers in Germany. The survey had 13 questions covering patient background, important features of autoinjectors, autoinjector performance, satisfaction with the autoinjector, and patient demographics (age, gender and education). Overall, 15 nurses and 15 patients took part. Both nurses and patients answered that the top four features of autoinjectors were ease of handling, ability to use independently, ease of gripping the autoinjector and ease of self-injection. The MyJECT™ autoinjector was given an average score of at least 4.5 out of 5 more often than the CSYNC™ autoinjector, although patients and nurses had high levels of satisfaction with both types of autoinjector. The overall conclusion was that multiple sclerosis nurses and patients were highly satisfied with both the MyJECT™ and CSYNC™ autoinjectors, with higher scores for MyJECT™ for features considered to be most important. All patients currently using MyJECT™ were likely to recommend it to another patient with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
© 2024 Shirol et al.