To evaluate the 2-year retention rate of golimumab compared with etanercept and adalimumab as second-line biologic agent in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who failed a previous tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi).
Data on RA patients treated with a second-line subcutaneous TNFi were extracted from a multicentric Italian cohort (the LORHEN registry). The analysis was limited to etanercept, adalimumab and golimumab in the period when all were available in Italy (since October 2010). The 2-year retention rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and the comparative risk for discontinuation among individual TNFi was compared by a stratified log-rank test.
One hundred and ninety-five RA patients treated with etanercept (n = 76), adalimumab (n = 68) or golimumab (n = 51) were included in the analysis. The 2-year retention rate (40% with a median time-on-drug of 12.9 months in the whole population) was significantly lower for adalimumab (31.2%, P = 0.018) and numerically lower for etanercept (39.8%, P = 0.068) compared with golimumab (53.4%) because of a higher discontinuation rate due to adverse events (P = 0.042 and P = 0.038 versus golimumab, respectively). Drug survival was greater in concomitant synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (sDMARD) users (44.2%) compared with TNFi monotherapy (22.5%, P = 0.036). No difference was found in survival analysis according to first-line TNFi reason for discontinuation and pattern of TNFi switch (antibody-receptor, antibody-antibody or receptor-antibody).
Our real-life data confirmed switching to a second TNFi as a good option for treating first-line TNFi failures in RA, especially in combination with sDMARDs. Second-line golimumab showed an overall better 2-year drug survival compared with adalimumab and etanercept.