Studying causality next?
Session moderator Maya Buch, MD, PhD, professor of rheumatology at the University of Manchester (England), asked Dr. Kim why she found significant differences in some secondary outcomes but not the primary composite endpoint.
Dr. Maya Buch
“When we think of cardiovascular diseases, we tend to think of them all developing through the same mechanism. But perhaps the exact mechanism might not be identical,” Dr. Kim replied. The findings do not suggest causality because the study was observational, she added, “but maybe this will lead to a randomized, controlled trial.”
When asked for comment, Dr. Buch said that the study was “interesting” and “suggestive of differences in type of MACE between the two drugs evaluated,” but that there should be caution in interpreting the findings because of the lack of detailed information on RA disease and activity in claims databases, in addition to other factors, even though the investigators made adjustments for known differences through propensity score matching.
The division of pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital supported the study. Dr. Kim has received support for Brigham and Women’s Hospital for unrelated research from Pfizer, AbbVie, Roche, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Several other coauthors reported having financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies that make drugs for RA. Dr. Buch had no relevant disclosures.
SOURCE: He M et al. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2020;72(suppl 10): Abstract 1993.