Record Status This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database. Citation CADTH. Biologic response modifier agents as first-line treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a review of the clinical efficacy, cost-effectiveness and guidelines. Ottawa: Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). Rapid Response - Summary with Critical Appraisal. 2013 Authors' conclusions Randomized controlled trials of biologic agents used as first line treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, who have not previously received methotrexate or other disease modifying antirheumatic therapies, have shown benefit in terms of clinical response and radiographic progression in the short-term (up to one year), compared to methotrexate monotherapy. The cost-effectiveness of first line biologic therapy exceeded commonly reported willingness to pay thresholds in six of eight economic evaluations conducted in countries other than Canada. Evidence based guidelines were inconsistent, with one recommending against first line biologic therapy, and three advocating for biologic use in a subset of patients with poor prognostic factors or high disease activity. Indexing Status Subject indexing assigned by CRD MeSH Antirheumatic Agents; Arthritis, Rheumatoids; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha Language Published English Country of organisation Canada English summary An English language summary is available. Address for correspondence Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), 865 Carling Avenue, Suite 600, Ottawa, Ontario Canada, K1S 5S8 Email: requests@cadth.ca AccessionNumber 32014000202 Date abstract record published 29/01/2014 |