Real-World Evidence on the Cardiovascular Safety of CONTRAVE® in the United States (U.S.)

The fixed-dose combination of naltrexone 8mg and bupropion 90mg extended-release oral tablet is marketed under the trade name CONTRAVE® in the U.S. In this protocol, the investigators propose to generate real-world evidence (RWE) from electronic health records (EHR) and linked claims data to assess the cardiovascular safety of CONTRAVE® and all combined use of naltrexone and bupropion (NB) in usual clinical practice.

The study will assess whether patients who initiate treatment with NB are at an elevated risk of MACE compared with patients who initiated treatment with lorcaserin, an active comparator chosen to reduce potential confounding. The cohorts for all study objectives will be drawn from a large electronic health records (EHR) data source, representing a geographically diverse patient population. The data will include diagnoses, procedures, medications (prescribed and administered), clinical measures (biometric and laboratory values), and observations derived from clinical notes. A subset of the population will have linked, adjudicated claims data available to support sensitivity analyses. The study's main objective is to compare the incidence of the primary endpoint (MACE) between initiators of NB and initiators of lorcaserin. The study will also compare the incidence of the secondary endpoint, consisting of each component of MACE, between initiators of NB and initiators of lorcaserin, across the following subgroups: Patients with obesity (i.e., most recent BMI measurement ≥30 kg/m2); Patients with a diagnosis of hypertension, regardless of BMI; Patients with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus, regardless of BMI; Patients with a diagnosis of dyslipidemia, regardless of BMI. The study's additional objectives aimed at testing the robustness of the methods are: To assess the comparability of findings from an EHR study to those of a 2018 clinical trial, aligning with the Randomized Control Trials Duplicated Using Prospective Longitudinal Insurance Claims: Applying Techniques of Epidemiology (RCT DUPLICATE) Initiative; To quantify differences in cardiovascular safety endpoints between the clinical trial and the results of this EHR study; To conduct other sensitivity analyses, including a self-controlled, case-crossover analysis to quantify the potential effect of NB on MACE.