Key clinical point: The drug survival rate was good for the first biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Moreover, female sex may be a predisposing risk factor for flares and therapeutic switches.
Major finding: Overall, 44.32% of patients switched to another bDMARD. The mean time to first bDMARD discontinuation was 72 months. Overall, the drug survival rate in patients treated with antitumor necrosis factor-α and anti-interleukin (IL)-12/23 or anti-IL17 was 75% at 2 years and 60% at 5 years without a significant difference between the biological agents ( P = .66). Female sex was associated with a higher risk for first bDMARD discontinuation (hazard ratio, 2.39; 95% confidence interval, 1.50-3.81).
Study details: The data come from a 15-year, monocentric, real-life study involving 264 patients with PsA who received biologics treatment.
Disclosures: The study reported no external funding. R Ramonda and A Doria reported receiving honoraria and speaker fees from Novartis, AbbVie, Pfizer, MSD, and Janssen. All the other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Lorenzin M et al. Clin Rheumatol. 2021 Jun 16. doi: 10.1007/s10067-021-05799-0 .