Practice

Though the use of biosimilars is becoming more common in the adult arthritis space, there has been little research on their use in pediatric patients. Identifying the need for further analysis in this population, researchers conducted a study investigating biosimilar use in children and young adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The results were presented last week at the British Society for Rheumatology’s Annual Conference held in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Some cervical cancer patients with advanced or recurrent disease suffer from anaphylaxis after taxane- or platinum-based therapy, and there is no standard treatment for progressive disease that develops during or shortly after platinum-based chemotherapy. Doctors and patients have therefore sought the development of a non-taxane, non-platinum regimen for recurrent cervical cancer.

Yesterday, at the British Society for Rheumatology’s Annual Conference held in Liverpool, United Kingdom, researchers presented a study that investigated the clinical outcomes of a multi-disciplinary switch to biosimilar etanercept from the reference product in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

While treatment with trastuzumab is the standard of care for HER2-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer and gastric cancer, data on long-term use of the biologic are lacking, and cardiac risk related to trastuzumab has posed concerns.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top 5 articles for the week of April 30, 2018.

Filgrastim, used to prevent febrile neutropenia (FN) in patients undergoing chemotherapy, is the first drug in the United States to have a biosimilar approved. While the biosimilar filgrastim was approved in 2015, few studies have compared the real-world incidence of FN, healthcare resource utilization, and costs among US patients using the reference product (Neupogen) and those using the approved biosimilar (Zarxio).

While systemic inflammation is a potential biological mechanism underlying both Parkinson disease (PD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), clinical data on comorbid PD and IBD are few. In a new study published in JAMA Neurology, researchers report on a retrospective cohort study that assessed the incidence of PD among patients with IBD and sought to identify whether anti–tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy for IBD alters the risk of PD.

At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held April 23 to 26, in Boston, Massachusetts, several research teams presented posters relevant to the US adoption of biosimilars.

Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is a prevalent, vision-threatening disease, of which macular edema is a common complication. Standard treatment for RVO-associated macular edema involves intravitreal treatment with anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents such as ranibizumab, bevacizumab, or aflibercept. Despite success with these agents in clinical trials, anti-VEGF agents may be administered less frequently in clinical practice than in studies.

A case series was recently published in CNS Oncology that investigated whether adult pilocytic astrocytoma—a rare and highly vascular tumor—is responsive to bevacizumab treatment.

After spinal cord injury, oxidative stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction can cause neural damage that was once believed to be both immediate and irreversible. However, neuronal death is now believed to proceed over a period of several days after initial trauma, and to include cellular, molecular, and biochemical cascades, including local inflammatory responses. Tumor necrosis factor is believed to be involved in the local production of cytokines at the site of the injury.

At the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)’s State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Symposium, held last week in Chicago, Illinois, Judith James, MD, PhD, chair of arthritis and clinical immunology at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, presented a talk on precision medicine in rheumatology.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top 5 biosimilars articles for the week of April 16, 2018.

Rheumatologists gathered from across the country last week to discuss the latest approaches in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other inflammatory diseases at the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) 2018 State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Clinical Symposium held in Chicago, Illinois.

Canadian patients who receive brand-name adalimumab (Humira) to treat ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are eligible for a patient support program, provided by drug maker AbbVie, that includes personalized services such as coaching phone calls before and after initiating treatment.

Kashyap Patel, MD, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care, told The Center for Biosimilars® in an interview that, as his practice has begun to implement the Oncology Care Model, it has moved 100% of its patients to biosimilar filgrastim, Zarxio, from the reference filgrastim, Neupogen.

AbbVie reports that the trial of 15 mg of orally-administered, once-daily upadacitinib met its primary endpoints, with 71% of patients achieving 20% improvement based on American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR20), and 29% achieving clinical remission.

Researchers demonstrated that trastuzumab increased progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with uterine serous carcinoma.

Sanofi’s list prices for Admelog are approximately 15% lower than the originator Humalog’s prices.

A recent study concludes that both hypertension and proteinuria, which are considered to be interrelated with the pharmacological action of bevacizumab, have the potential to indicate greater likelihood of therapeutic efficacy.

Data suggest that intravitreal bevacizumab increases the risk of thromboembolism, and some studies have raised the possibility of a link between bevacizumab and myocardial infarction (MI), while other studies did not find such a relationship.

In a briefing to regional committees, the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) urged commissioners to begin planning to use the best-value adalimumab option beginning in October 2018, when Amgen’s EU-authorized biosimilar, Amgevita, becomes available.

A recent study provides the final long-term efficacy and safety results from the phase 3 ABILITY-1 trial’s open-label extension in patients with nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis, which show that the anti–tumor necrosis factor agent adalimumab (Humira) provided sustained clinical and functional improvements through 3 years.

Last week, an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses investigating systemic adverse events associated with intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatments was published in JAMA Ophthalmology.

The Center for Biosimilars® recaps the top 5 biosimilars articles for the week of March 19, 2018.

Rituximab induction therapy has the highest probability of cost effectiveness in treating newly diagnosed patients with asymptomatic advanced follicular lymphoma, according to a study published in the British Journal of Haematology.

One week after intravitreal bevacizumab injection, corneal endothelial cells showed no sign of inflammation or any other complications, according to a study published in BMC Ophthalmology.

Although corticosteroids are a mainstay of treatment for immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), some patients with HIV are refractory to corticosteroid therapy. Infliximab may be useful in treating IRIS, but little is known about patients who are also refractory to infliximab therapy.

A multi-center retrospective study of Japanese patients, newly published in PLOS One, sought to describe treatment persistence and reasons for discontinuation among patients who were treating their rheumatoid arthritis with 1 of 7 biologic agents: adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab, golimumab, certolizumab pegol, tocilizumab, and abatacept.

Biosimilars of eculizumab, which have the potential to reduce costs for both patients and the healthcare system, have been eagerly awaited, yet many drug makers are developing novel anti-C5 agents.