Cost Aside, Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs Have Similar Effect

Rheumatoid arthritis patients who were treated with a more costly treatment, saw no more improvement than those sought conventional treatment in reducing time off work. US News reports:

Treatment with a pricey biological drug was no better than cheaper, conventional therapy in terms of reducing time off from work for people with rheumatoid arthritis, a new study finds.

Swedish researchers assessed lost work days among rheumatoid arthritis patients who had not responded to initial treatment with a standard medication, methotrexate.

The group of 204 patients were randomly given either the biological drug infliximab (Remicade) or conventional combination therapy with the non-biologics sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine.

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