Rheumatoid Arthritis: Efficacy of Biosimilars Treatment, University

This essay provides an overview of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and the advancements in its treatment, with a particular focus on the use of biosimilars. The introduction highlights the chronic and progressive nature of RA and the importance of effective and cost-effective treatment options. The review of literature examines the benefits of biosimilars, specifically CT-P13 (a biosimilar of Infliximab), in treating RA. The essay cites several studies, including those by Nikiphorou et al. (2015), Yoo et al. (2017), and Becciolini et al. (2017), which demonstrate the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of CT-P13 compared to traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and other treatments. These studies highlight the long-term and short-term benefits, as well as the improved immunogenicity profiles of CT-P13. The essay concludes that biosimilars, particularly CT-P13, offer a valuable and effective treatment option for RA patients, emphasizing their potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden of the disease.

Running head: RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Introduction
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a progressive, chronic disease that is associated with the
degeneration of the joints of the body if the condition is kept untreated for a long time. With
growing technology, the techniques of treatment of RA has also progressed a lot. Nowadays, the
treatment of RA is focusing on to be cost-effective and along with this the treatment procedure
must be very effective in reducing the burden of the disease as well. There are various treatment
for the RA and among them using of biosimilar in the treatment RA has been proven to be very
effective (Mahajan & Mikuls, 2018). In this essay, the benefits of this new treatment process of
RA has been highlighted in a brief manner.
Review of Literature
The introduction of biosimilar agents in the treatment of RA has become very effective in
recent time as it is cost effective while comparing with the disease modifying antirheumatic
drugs (DMARDs). Annual cost of DMARDs are restricting the patients to get access of the drugs
easily and it is assumed that almost US$ 10000 to US$ 25000 is required for using DMARDs
treatment in RA. Various studies showed the benefits of using biosimilar in the treatment of RA.
One of the most common biosimilar treatment is biosimilar of Infliximab that is CT-P13.
According to the study of Nikiphorou et al. (2015), showed the effectiveness of CT-P13 in the
treatment of RA. In this study it was observed that, 39 patients participated in this study and they
were already using methotrexate for almost 3 months – 13 years. After the treatment with CP-
P13. According to the patient outcomes of this study, it was observed that, the biosimilar
treatment has not produced any problems like fatigue that is quite common in the DMARDs
treatment and the p value of p< 0.08 showed significant differences among the two treatment
process. The real life settings was used in this study and it was one of the strengths of this study.

2RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
On the other hand, control group was absent in this study and it reduces the reliability of the
study. The study of Yoo et al. (2017) also supported the benefits of CT-P13 in the treatment of
RA. In this study, almost 455 patients with RA was enrolled in the PLANETRA study and
among them 302 patients completed the study. CT-P13 was given in the amount of 3mg/kg with
an interval of 8 week. The maintenance group of CT-P13 was given the medicine for 102 weeks
and the switch group was given RP for 54 weeks and then they were given CT-P13. Almost 158
patients were in the CT-P13 group and 144 were in the switvh group. The study result showed
that, the application of CT-P13 was much more effective and safe while comparing with the
switch group of the study that is those patients who were switched to CT-P13 after 54 weeks.
The study proved that, use of CT-P13 is associated with the long term efficacy in the patients of
RA. There was no detrimental effect on immunogenicity after the switching of the treatment and
this suggested that CT-P13 is quite safe in the treatment of RA. The safety related issues of
biosimilar drugs in the treatment of RA has also been supported by the study of Becciolini et al.
(2017). In this study, the PLANETRA trial study showed that the CT-P13 is more effective than
that of the INX group of the study at the end of week 30 with a confidence interval (CI) of 6% to
10%. The overall result of this study, showed that CT-P13 is capable of providing long-term and
short-term effect to the RA patients. In addition, the use of CT-P13 is quite safe to use in
comparison with the INX treatment. The treatment related adverse event in case of CT-P13
patients was almost 43.7% and 45% was observed in case of INX treatment group. In addition, in
case of immunogenicity it was observed that the CT-P13 is better than that of the INX as
immunogenicity rate was almost 23.3% in case of CT-P13 and in case of switching group the
rate was 29.8% with a p value of 0.39.

3RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Conclusion
Hence it can be concluded that, the use of biosimilar of Infliximab is very effective in the
treatment of RA. Various studies also showed that, it is beneficial to use biosimilar of Infliximab
that is CT-P13 in the treatment of RA due its cost effectiveness, better immunogenicity and long
term and short term efficacy.

4RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
References
Becciolini, A., Raimondo, M. G., Crotti, C., Agape, E., Biggioggero, M., & Favalli, E. G.
(2017). A review of the literature analyzing benefits and concerns of infliximab
biosimilar CT-P13 for the treatment of rheumatologic diseases: focus on
interchangeability. Drug design, development and therapy, 11, 1969.
Mahajan, T. D., & Mikuls, T. R. (2018). Recent advances in the treatment of rheumatoid
arthritis. Current opinion in rheumatology, 30(3), 231-237.
Nikiphorou, E., Kautiainen, H., Hannonen, P., Asikainen, J., Kokko, A., Rannio, T., & Sokka, T.
(2015). Clinical effectiveness of CT-P13 (Infliximab biosimilar) used as a switch from
Remicade (infliximab) in patients with established rheumatic disease. Report of clinical
experience based on prospective observational data. Expert opinion on biological
therapy, 15(12), 1677-1683.
Yoo, D. H., Prodanovic, N., Jaworski, J., Miranda, P., Ramiterre, E., Lanzon, A., ... & Smiyan,
S. (2017). Efficacy and safety of CT-P13 (biosimilar infliximab) in patients with
rheumatoid arthritis: comparison between switching from reference infliximab to CT-P13
and continuing CT-P13 in the PLANETRA extension study. Annals of the rheumatic
diseases, 76(2), 355-363.