MS patients highly satisfied with Sensoready autoinjector pen
Study participants cited reasonable administration time, ease of use
Nearly all adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) said they are highly satisfied with the Sensoready autoinjector pen to self-administer Kesimpta (ofatumumab), according to a recent U.S. survey.
High satisfaction was mainly driven by the reasonable administration time and ease of use, the researchers said. The study, “Real-world satisfaction and experience with injection and autoinjector device for ofatumumab indicated for multiple sclerosis,” was published in BMC Neurology.
Kesimpta, marketed by Novartis, is an anti-CD20 antibody approved in the U.S. for treating adults with relapsing forms of MS, including clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), and active secondary progressive MS (SPMS). It’s designed to reduce relapse rates, lesion load, and the risk of disability progression by depleting B-cells, a type of immune cell that drives nervous system damage in MS.
The therapy is given as a monthly subcutaneous, or under the skin, injection and can be self-administered at home or on the go. This can be done with either a single dose prefilled syringe or the Sensoready autoinjector pen, which has no visible needle and allows Kesimpta to be administered with just two clicks.
While MS patients generally prefer autoinjectors over other injection methods, especially the Sensoready Pen versus other autoinjectors, “there is a paucity of real-world studies focused on patients’ satisfaction and experiences with the Sensoready device,” the researchers wrote.
‘High satisfaction’ with Sensoready
Here, researchers at Novartis and other institutions evaluated MS patients in the U.S. who’d been self-administering Kesimpta with the Sensoready device over the past year. The participants completed a questionnaire on the device’s overall satisfaction, usability, convenience/flexibility for travel, user confidence, and injection experience. Higher scores on a five-point scale indicated positive responses.
The study enrolled 105 adults with MS, 38.1% of whom hadn’t received a previous disease-modifying therapy (DMT) before Kesimpta and 61.9% of whom had an experience with a DMT. DMT-naïve patients said they chose Kesimpta mainly for convenience and ease of use, while DMT-experienced patients switched due to a lack of benefits or worsening symptoms from previous treatments.
The overall mean Sensoready satisfaction score was 4.4, with higher satisfaction scores reported in the DMT-experienced than in the DMT-naïve group (4.6 vs. 4.1). Consistent with this finding, more DMT-experienced participants reported high satisfaction with the device — a rating of either 4 (satisfied) or 5 (extremely satisfied) — than DMT-naïve patients (90.8% vs. 80%).
“The high satisfaction in the DMT-experienced group could be because patients with prior DMT experience had suffered longer from MS than those in the DMT-naïve group (39.5 vs. 24.2 months),” the researchers wrote.
No patient reported being dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied with the Sensoready device.
The most common reasons for high satisfaction with the autoinjector were the reasonable administration time (90.5%), overall ease of use (89.5%), the monthly dosing schedule (89.5%), the time needed to prepare the device (86.7%), and the ease of preparation (81.9%). Device ergonomics (76.2%) and portability (73.3%) were also mentioned.
The overall satisfaction with other injectable DMTs that participants took before Kesimpta was low, with a mean score of 2.8, “showing improved patient satisfaction with the Sensoready device as compared to prior DMTs,” the researchers said.
Regardless of prior DMT use, most participants felt confident self-administering the therapy using the Sensoready Pen (85.7%), said they intended to continue using the device (89.5%), and would recommend Kesimpta to others (87.6%).
About 3 out of 4 (77.1%) said the device didn’t interfere with their daily activities, although this outcome was reported more often in the DMT-experienced group than in the DMT-naïve group (83.1% vs. 67.5%).
“Results from this study provide evidence of real-world satisfaction and experience with the Sensoready device for [Kesimpta] administration in patients with MS,” the researchers wrote. “Device satisfaction level and experience ratings were higher in the DMT-experienced versus the DMT-naïve group, mostly driven by reasonable administration time and ease of use.”
A better understanding of the long-term experience of MS patients in administering Kesimpta with the Sensoready device may require more studies, the researchers said.
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