Rheumatology

As AbbVie’s best-selling Humira faces oncoming biosimilar competition, the drug maker is developing a new innovator product that could help it retain a hold on the market; new results from 3 phase 3 clinical trials show AbbVie’s investigational interleukin-23 inhibitor, risankizumab, to be more effective than adalimumab (Humira) or ustekinumab (Stelara) in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

Russian biosimilar developer Biocad has won a legal battle that will allow it to move forward with its rituximab biosimilar.

Advances in research suggest that neurotransmitters other than serotonin and noradrenaline may be involved in the pathogenesis and treatment of major depressive disorder, and have pointed to inflammation as an important factor.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have high healthcare utilization and high healthcare costs, which place a burden on health systems and patients alike. However, a recently published retrospective cohort study found that effective treatment for RA (namely, treatment with etanercept) may lead to lower overall and lower RA-related healthcare utilization.

New data from an extension period of a phase 3 study of Samsung Bioepis’ SB2 (Renflexis) in patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis found that there was no clinically meaningful difference in safety, efficacy, or immunogenicity in patients who were switched from reference infliximab to the biosimilar compared with patients who continued treatment with either the reference or the biosimilar without switching.

A Dutch study reports that 24% of patients who switched from originator infliximab to CT-P13, an infliximab biosimilar, discontinued the biosimilar by their 6-month follow-up, mainly for reasons researchers termed “subjective” health complaints.

Switching patients from originator biologics to biosimilars is associated with the potential for a “nocebo” effect, a phenomenon that occurs when a patient’s negative expectation causes a treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would—essentially, the opposite of the placebo effect.

In recent paper published in Rheumatology, authors Till Uhlig, MD, and Guro L. Goll, PhD explore some of the remaining barriers to the adoption of biosimilar therapies in Europe. Physician attitudes, patient concerns, and prescribing restrictions on biologic therapies are all identified in the paper as having a role curbing uptake of biosimilars.

On this World Arthritis Day, patients with inflammatory diseases have increasing treatment options as biosimilars gain regulatory approval and become more widely available for use. New clinical data also help support the efficacy and safety of these therapies.

Insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers use step-therapy policies to require doctors to prescribe older, less expensive drugs first, which patients must fail to respond to adequately before they become eligible for newer, more expensive treatments.

Brandon Shank, PharmD, MPH, BCOP, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, discusses the need for pharmacy schools to adapt their curriculum to address biosimilar treatments.

A phase 3 study comparing Samsung Bioepis’ etanercept biosimilar, SB4, to its reference found that SB4 had comparable efficacy—including radiographic progression—to week 52 of treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

A new study comparing the clinical effectiveness of anti–tumor necrosis factor agents and the interleukin-6 inhibitor tocilizumab (Acterma) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis found that tocilizumab outperformed anti-TNFs in terms of effectiveness and drug survival.

The number of people who had annual prescription medication costs of $50,000 or more in 2016 was 35% higher than it was in 2014, according to pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts.

Where does the market for infliximab stand in the United States? Our infographic provides a brief history of Remicade and its biosimilars.

Drug maker Amgen has announced a deal to partner with Simcere Pharmaceutical Group to co-develop and commercialize 4 biosimilar treatments in China.