Discover how the latest multicenter study sheds light on the effectiveness and safety of sarilumab for rheumatoid arthritis patients, offering new insights into treatment options.
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Effectiveness and safety of sarilumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A multicenter, retrospective, inverse probability of treatment-weighted analysis based on the FRAB-registry.
Harada et al., Clin Rheumatol 2024
DOI: 10.1007/s10067-023-06862-8
Summary of Sarilumab Efficacy and Safety in Japanese RA Patients
Background: A real-world study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of sarilumab (SARI) in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Japan.
Methods: The study included 121 RA patients from 23 medical institutions who began SARI treatment between May 2018 and November 2021. Data collected included baseline characteristics, disease activity, blood tests, and follow-up information up to Week 52. The continuation rate was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) was used to measure treatment effectiveness. Propensity score adjustment was applied to account for baseline characteristic differences.
Results: The continuation rate for SARI at Week 52 was 66.1%. Significant improvement in CDAI was observed from Week 4 and sustained until Week 52. After adjusting for baseline characteristics, no significant differences in efficacy at Week 52 were found related to body mass index (BMI), presence of serious comorbidities, methotrexate (MTX) use, or the number of prior biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs (b/tsDMARDs).
Conclusions: SARI’s efficacy was not influenced by BMI, comorbidities, MTX use, or previous b/tsDMARDs treatment. No new safety concerns were identified.
Significance: This is the first real-world clinical study in Japan confirming that SARI is effective and safe for RA patients, regardless of certain patient characteristics. It supports the use of SARI in the Japanese population without the emergence of new side effects.