Key clinical point: Systemic-therapy-naive patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) treated with apremilast required a longer time and were less likely to initiate biologic therapy than those treated with methotrexate in the real world.
Major finding: Patients receiving apremilast vs methotrexate had a significantly longer mean time to biologic initiation (194.1 vs 138.7 days; P < .001) and were 58% less likely to use any biologics at 1-year follow-up (odds ratio [OR] 0.42; P < .001), with the likelihood of biologic use being consistently low at 2-year follow-up (OR 0.46; P < .001).
Study details: Findings are from a retrospective, observational, cohort study including 2116 systemic-therapy-naive patients with PsA who initiated apremilast (n = 534) or methotrexate (n = 1582) before initiating biologics.
Disclosures: This study was funded by Amgen Inc. Eight authors reported owning stocks or being current or former employees of Amgen or a company contracted by Amgen.
Source: Husni ME et al. biologic initiation rate in systemic-naïve psoriatic arthritis patients starting treatment with apremilast vs methotrexate: 1-year retrospective analysis of a US claims database. Open Access Rheumatol. 2022;14:123-132 (Jun 15). Doi: 10.2147/OARRR.S342123