Pimentel et al. evaluated the influence of anti-infliximab antibodies on patients with axial spondyloarthritis. The researchers found that anti-infliximab antibodies were associated with decreased infliximab performance and difficulty tapering its dosage, as well as a good clinical response to a second, alternate tumor necrosis factor inhibitor.
Three commercial health insurance payers have increased reimbursement for infliximab biosimilars in response to concerns that formulary requirements are leaving practices underwater.
Checking blood levels of commonly used disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) has gained widespread attention in the rheumatology community, even resulting in a recent guidance document from EULAR for biologics.1 Although a highly useful tool, drug level measurement in rheumatology is not without challenges; many of our drugs violate the basic principles of pharmacology that we…
Although rheumatologists prescribe tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi’s) to treat several rheumatic diseases, they recognize immunogenicity influences the efficacy and safety of TNFi’s. Example: The formation of anti-drug antibodies can affect infusion reactions and cause low-serum drug levels and therapeutic failure. The induction phase is a period of high incidence of immunogenicity, and observational data…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Results of a randomized controlled trial do not support routine use of proactive therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) during infliximab induction for improving disease remission rates in patients rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Proactive therapeutic drug monitoring tailors biologic therapy to individual patients by measuring serum drug levels and…
In a recent study, researchers designed an intervention centered on communication and led by nurses to address discontinuation rates among patients who had switched to a biosimilar. The nurses’ insight and experience reduced the nocebo effect during the intervention, which had an 84% retention rate for patients taking a biosimilar after one year.
In Canada, a subcutaneous formulation of CT-P13, which is biosimilar to infliximab, was approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
As useful stand-ins for biologics targeting a range of inflammatory diseases, biosimilars have made significant inroads across Europe as less expensive alternatives. Denmark, for example, realized a cost savings of 64% after instituting a mandatory national switch from the originator infliximab to its biosimilar counterpart. In the U.S., however, a considerably smaller fraction of rheumatologists…
Any given rheumatology patient who needs a biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) will spend $22,000–44,000 on their medication each year…
Take the challenge. Answers Biosimilars Methotrexate Time Presenting problem Ultrasound guidance International Classification of Diseases Current Procedural Terminology Trigger points Osteoporosis Osteoarthritis