Gagne, JoshuaRassen, JeremyChoudhry, NiteeshBohn, R. L.Patrick, AmandaSridhar, GDaniel, G WLiu, JunSchneeweiss, Sebastian2017-08-072014Gagne, Joshua J., Jeremy A. Rassen, Niteesh K. Choudhry, Rhonda L. Bohn, Amanda R. Patrick, Gayathri Sridhar, Gregory W. Daniel, Jun Liu, and Sebastian Schneeweiss. 2014. “Near-Real-Time Monitoring of New Drugs: An Application Comparing Prasugrel Versus Clopidogrel.” Drug Saf 37 (3) (March): 151–161. doi:10.1007/s40264-014-0136-0.0114-5916http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33719943BACKGROUND: Methods for near-real-time monitoring of new drugs in electronic healthcare data are needed. OBJECTIVE: In a novel application, we prospectively monitored ischemic, bleeding, and mortality outcomes among patients initiating prasugrel versus clopidogrel in routine care during the first 2 years following the approval of prasugrel. METHODS: Using the HealthCore Integrated Research Database, we conducted a prospective cohort study comparing prasugrel and clopidogrel initiators in the 6 months following the introduction of prasugrel and every 2 months thereafter. We identified patients who initiated antiplatelets within 14 days following discharge from hospitalizations for myocardial infarction (MI) or acute coronary syndrome. We matched patients using high-dimensional propensity scores (hd-PSs) and followed them for ischemic (i.e., MI and ischemic stroke) events, bleed (i.e., hemorrhagic stroke and gastrointestinal bleed) events, and all-cause mortality. For each outcome, we applied sequential alerting algorithms. RESULTS: We identified 1,282 eligible new users of prasugrel and 8,263 eligible new users of clopidogrel between September 2009 and August 2011. In hd-PS matched cohorts, the overall MI rate difference (RD) comparing prasugrel with clopidogrel was -23.1 (95 % confidence interval [CI] -62.8-16.7) events per 1,000 person-years and RDs were -0.5 (-12.9-11.9) and -2.8 (-13.2-7.6) for a composite bleed event outcome and death from any cause, respectively. No algorithms generated alerts for any outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Near-real-time monitoring was feasible and, in contrast to the key pre-marketing trial that demonstrated the efficacy of prasugrel, did not suggest that prasugrel compared with clopidogrel was associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal and intracranial bleeding.en-USJournal Article2014-03-1210.1007/s40264-014-0136-0