Serious infection rate is low in people with rheumatoid arthritis treated with biologic DMARDs and denosumab

People with rheumatoid arthritis who take biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), including those who also take denosumab to avoid bone loss, have a low occurrence of infections, experts outline in the Journal of Rheumatology.

The researchers looked at data from 308 people with rheumatoid arthritis; 102 people were taking denosumab and biologic DMARD, and 206 people were taking the biologic alone.

Only three serious infection events were reported in the group on both treatments. Four serious infections and one opportunistic infection occurred in the biologic-alone group. All patients who experienced infection eventually recovered.

“The small number of infections observed is consistent with that reported in previous cohort studies and provides additional evidence of the safety of concurrent treatment with denosumab and a biologic DMARD,” says Dr Arthur N. Lau, lead author.

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