In a study published by Glintborg et al in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the retention and effectiveness of newer biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)—abatacept, apremilast, ixekizumab, secukinumab, tofacitinib, and ustekinumab—were compared to outcomes with adalimumab in a cohort of Nordic patients from 2012 to 2020. Researchers found that the uptake of these newer agents increased in 2014 and plateaued in 2018; adalimumab was found to often be used as first-line therapy, and the newer DMARDs were more often used in patients previously treated with biologics. In later lines of therapy, adalimumab was found to have better retention and disease activity control than some, but not all, newer biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs. The study authors concluded, “Superior outcomes for adalimumab indicate that the positioning of newer biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs in the [psoriatic arthritis] treatment algorithm remains to be established.”
May 25, 2023