The BSRBR-RA is fortunate to be able to collaborate with numerous different research groups both across the UK and internationally.  

As part of the JAK-pot collaboration, 19 registers internationally – including the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register for RA (BSRBR-RA), collated all their data on how well these drugs work in the real-world. Overall, more than 30,000 different episodes of treatment were included. It is the first to evaluate real-life effectiveness and safety outcomes among four common available advanced treatment options; TNF inhibitors, IL6 inhibitors, abatacept, and JAK inhibitors.   

Overall, how long patients remained on treatment for (a marker for how well the drug works for) was similar between treatments. This was also true of how many patients responded to treatment. However, more patients stopped JAK inhibitors for safety reasons. This could be due to a combination of real differences in safety profile as well as heightened concerns from physicians and patients, causing them potentially to be more careful with this newer treatment.  

Thus, these results support the use of these four treatments for treating patients with RA in ‘real-world’ clinical care. Considering similar effectiveness among these treatments, this study calls for the evaluation of other outcomes that could influence treatment choice, such as patient-reported outcomes, comorbidities, tolerability, safety or cost-effectiveness.   

For those interested in the full research, it can be found here

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Contact us – biologics.register@manchester.ac.uk 

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