High Satisfaction With Intravenous Biologic Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Survey data published in Arthritis Care & Research suggest a high level of satisfaction with intravenous (IV) administration of biologic therapy among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Investigators conducted 2 surveys to investigate the favorability of IV therapy compared with subcutaneous (SC) therapy among patients with RA. The first survey was administered to 243 patients at a suburban rheumatology practice in Greater Buffalo, New York, among whom 44% had not received prior IV or SC therapy. Conducted online, the second survey captured the experiences of patients with RA who had received IV infusion per the BioAdvance® patient support program (n=306). Median patient age was 60 and 49 years for the first and second survey cohorts, respectively, and participants were primarily women (first survey, 76%; second survey, 58%).

In the first survey patient cohort, 62% with RA reported a preference for IV therapy (62%) compared with SC therapy (38%; P <.0004). Of biologic-naive participants who expressed a preference (n=54), a significantly higher proportion expressed preference for IV therapy (65%) compared with SC therapy (35%; P <.01). The proportion reporting a preference for IV therapy also increased with age: patients >60 years were 3.4 times as likely as patients ≤60 years to endorse IV therapy. Biologic-naive women were more likely than men to express a preference for route of administration (P <.01). According to the second survey, the median rating of IV favorability on a 10-point scale was 5 prior to first infusion and 9 after multiple infusions, with 77% of patients increasing their initial rating to 7 or more following IV infusions in the BioAdvance® program.

These data outline the acceptability of IV biologic therapy for RA, which may be useful to clinicians in treatment course development. As IV therapy can be readily monitored, researchers also suggested it as an answer to low adherence with other forms of RA treatment.

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Reference

Grisanti L, Kwiatkowski A, Dyrda P, et al. Patient perspectives on intravenous biologics for rheumatologic disease [published online September 17, 2018]. Arthritis Care Res. doi:10.1002/acr.23758