People with rheumatoid arthritis less likely to stop using biologic therapies

Low number of people with rheumatoid arthritis quit treatment when they’re using biologic therapies, according to research published in RMD Open.

People discontinue therapies when they don’t work well enough or result in intolerable side effects. So a team compared discontinuation rates of first and second biologics in 2,281 people with rheumatoid arthritis by anti-TNF status.

Findings

• 48% of people discontinued their first biologic therapy;
• Of those that went on to receive a second biologic therapy, 49% discontinued it;
• Annual discontinuation rate was 17% for the initial treatment and 20% for the second;
• Anti-TNFs had lower discontinuation rates than non-TNF inhibitors;
• Predictors of discontinuation for the first biologic included smoking, worse overall health, not being prescribed methotrexate and the presence of other diseases in addition to arthritis.

“In this large cohort, patients with rheumatoid arthritis tended to remain on their first and second biologics for relatively long periods, suggesting the drugs’ effectiveness,” the researchers say. “Discontinuation rates were lower in patients using anti-TNFs, and all rates increased after January 2005, when the number of biologics available increased.”

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Image credit: fdecomite