AUTHOR=Faria Ronaldo José , Cordeiro Francisca Janiclecia Rezende , dos Santos Jéssica Barreto Ribeiro , Alvares-Teodoro Juliana , Guerra Júnior Augusto Afonso , Acurcio Francisco de Assis , da Silva Michael Ruberson Ribeiro
TITLE=Conventional Synthetic Disease-Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs for Psoriatic Arthritis: Findings and Implications From a Patient Centered Longitudinal Study in Brazil
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology
VOLUME=13
YEAR=2022
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.878972
DOI=10.3389/fphar.2022.878972
ISSN=1663-9812
ABSTRACT=Background: Conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are the first-line treatment to inhibit the progression of psoriatic arthritis. Despite their widespread clinical use, few studies have been conducted to compare these drugs for psoriatic arthritis.
Methods: a longitudinal study was carried out based on a centered patient national database in Brazil. Market share of drugs, medication persistence, drug costs, and cost per response were evaluated.
Results: a total of 1,999 individuals with psoriatic arthritis were included. Methotrexate was the most used drug (44.4%), followed by leflunomide (40.6%), ciclosporin (8.2%), and sulfasalazine (6.8%). Methotrexate and leflunomide had a greater market share than ciclosporin and sulfasalazine over years. Medication persistence was higher for leflunomide (58.9 and 28.2%), followed by methotrexate (51.6 and 25.4%) at six and 12 months, respectively. Leflunomide was deemed the most expensive drug, with an average annual cost of $317.25, followed by sulfasalazine ($106.47), ciclosporin ($97.64), and methotrexate ($40.23). Methotrexate was the drug being the lowest cost per response.
Conclusion: Methotrexate had the best cost per response ratio, owing to its lower cost and a slightly lower proportion of persistent patients when compared to leflunomide. Leflunomide had a slightly higher medication persistence than methotrexate, but it was the most expensive drug.