Real-world treatment persistence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis initiating DMARDs in Germany—a health insurance claims data analysis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate treatment patterns in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Germany who had previously received conventional synthetic (cs) or biologic (b) disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). METHODS: Patients with RA who initiated treatment with a csDMARD, bDMARD, or Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor between 2017 and 2018 and who had previously received csDMARD or bDMARD therapy were retrospectively selected from the Institute for Applied Health Research Berlin GmbH (InGef). Time on treatment and discontinuation risk were assessed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Cox regression identified variables associated with an increased discontinuation risk. RESULTS: A total of 990 patients had received prior csDMARD therapy; 375 had received prior bDMARD therapy. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors and JAK inhibitors were the most commonly prescribed DMARD class in those previously treated with a csDMARD or bDMARD, respectively. In both cohorts, more patients received DMARD monotherapy than combination therapy. In the prior csDMARD cohort, median time on treatment was 276, 252, and 148 days with JAK inhibitors, TNF‑α inhibitors, and csDMARDs, respectively, and those treated with JAK or TNF‑α inhibitors were less likely to discontinue treatment than those on csDMARDs (log-rank test p-value < 0.01 for both comparisons); no significant differences were found within the prior bDMARD cohort. CONCLUSION: This is among the first detailed analyses of RA treatment patterns in a real-world setting in Germany since the introduction of JAK inhibitors. TNF‑α inhibitors were the most commonly prescribed DMARD after failure of an initial csDMARD, while JAK inhibitors were the most common among patients previously treated with a bDMARD. In both groups, monotherapy with bDMARD or targeted synthetic DMARD was common. In the prior csDMARD cohort, treatment duration was significantly longer with JAK or TNF‑α inhibitors than with csDMARDs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00393-023-01323-8) includes the tables S1–S4 and figures S1–S2.