With medications, you might think that you get what you pay for, but when it comes to Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) this may not be the case. This is according to a new study which found that cheaper anti-rheumatic drugs still treated RA effectively in Nordic populations.
Testing both expensive and less-expensive anti-rheumatic drugs, the researchers found that either type could provide effective treatment for RA, a disease that causes cartilage damage and swelling, leading to joint erosion and pain. However, the researchers discovered that the drugs were able to target remission or low disease activity for Nordic patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and thus improve their joint wellness and overall feeling of wellbeing.
For the study, the investigators looked at the clinical data from all the RA patients who visited a Finnish hospital or one of two outpatient rheumatology clinics in Norway. At the former location, patients were an average age of 60 and 71% of those involved were women. The average age of the patients at the Norwegian hospitals was 61, and 69% of the group were women. The researchers also measured patient demographics, clinical characteristics, disease activity, functional status and treatments, and they also calculated the annual prescription costs to society per 100 patients, based on the assumption that a patient took medication for one year.
In Norway, the disease lasted an average of 9.6 years, whilst this rose to a mean disease duration 11.3 years in Finland. However, for both groups of patients, the prevalence of rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies were similar. The researchers reported that the patients’ functional status was “well reserved,” and in Norway, patients had a Disease Activity Score of 3.1, whilst it was just 2.6 in Finland.
So what about the medication? 17% of Finnish patients and 33% of the Norwegian group and 17% of Finnish patients were treated with biologic agents, though 37% of those in Finland used a combination of conventional anti-rheumatic drugs compared with less than 1% of Norwegian patients used 37% of Finnish patients. At €507,889, the estimated annual medication costs per 100 patients were nearly double among Norwegian patients, than patients in Finland, whose costs came to €279,796.
The researchers explained, ‘A concern has been raised that Finnish patients may represent a milder disease than Norwegians,’ but ‘these data indicated similar initial disease activity between the clinics.’ They added, ‘Similar clinical outcomes can be reached using expensive and less-expensive anti-rheumatic drugs, which may be recognized in future recommendations and guidelines for the treatment of RA. Routine clinical monitoring of all patients may be used as a tool to reach favourable outcomes in RA patients.’
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