Blir behandlingen av reumatoid artrit mer effektiv med tillägg av infliximab och är biosimilaren CT-P13 lika effektiv?

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic joint disease which mechanism of action is unknown. The immune mechanism initiates an inflammatory process that mainly affects the joints, which can lead to cartilage and bone damage but also to some generalized symptoms such as fatigue and inflammatory anemia. At present, RA is primarily treated with methotrexate (MTX) as monotherapy. Studies in the field indicate that MTX in combination with infliximab, a monoclonal antibody, is more effective in treating RA than MTX treatment alone. Most likely, infliximab is not used as first-hand therapy since the reference product Remicade® is very expensive. In 2015 the patent for Remicade® expired and there are now cheaper biosimilars available that have been approved for the same indication as Remicade®. The aim of this study was to investigate whether MTX in combination with infliximab is more effective than MTX alone in the treatment of active RA and evaluating whether there is equivalence between the reference product Remicade® and the CT-P13 biosimilar. The medical and bioscience database PubMed was used to obtain the scientific articles analyzed in this literature study. From PubMed 5 articles were selected for further analysis. The delimitation of the search was: indication RA, MTX, infliximab and biosimilar (CT-P13). Articles 1-3, based on the outcome variables of the studies indicated that infliximab in combination with MTX is more effective than MTX treatment alone in the treatment of active RA. Articles 4-5 examined equivalence between the reference product for infliximab (RP) and the biosimilar CT-P13 in the treatment of active RA. The analysis and results of articles 4-5 showed that there was a similarity between RP and CT-P13 in treatment of active RA. Based on this small-scale literature study, treatment with MTX in combination with infliximab seems more beneficial for disease control in active RA than MTX treatment alone. In addition, the biosimilar CT-P13 appears to be equivalent to the reference product Remicade® in the treatment of active RA. Replacement of Remicade® to CT-P13 can mean major savings in healthcare and the therapeutic recommendation for active RA may need to be reviewed as there are now effective, cheaper alternatives