Rheumatoid Arthritis | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2015
For the estimated 2 million diagnosed patients in the United States who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are multiple prescription therapies that are available for treating the associated symptoms. The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) guidelines recommend a step-up treatment paradigm that begins with longstanding conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDS) such as methotrexate before moving on to combinations of DMARDS or more-potent targeted therapies, such as TNF-a inhibitors and other biologics (selective costimulation modulators, Jak inhibitors, B cell inhibitors, interleukin-6 inhibitors). Using national patient-level claims data, this report analyzes physician adherence to the treatment guidelines by exploring the use of key therapies in the newly diagnosed and recently treated RA patient populations. Considering newly diagnosed patients, the report provides a quantitative analysis of treatment patterns and share by line of therapy, as well as progression between lines, duration of treatment on each line, and use of concomitant treatment. With respect to recently treated patients, the report quantifies a drug’s source of business compared with its competitors’ and details which drugs precede others through an analysis of add-versus-switch patterns. Additional analyses explore persistency and compliance by brand.
