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A rheumatoid arthritis treatment that can cost patients thousands of dollars less annually is as effective as another regimen that many doctors believe to be more potent, a University of Nebraska Medical Center physician says.
Dr. James O’Dell will be among researchers who present that finding this week at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in Philadelphia.
O’Dell helped oversee a two-year study of 755 newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients. He said researchers wanted to compare the effectiveness of a combination of medicines, called “triple therapy,” against a far more expensive injectable medication called etanercept.
O’Dell said the latter is more expensive because it uses living cells, while the medicines in triple therapy are chemicals produced synthetically.
He said the research found that overall, triple therapy is just as effective for patients.
“The treatment results were very similar,” O’Dell said. “Until this study was done, they’d never been compared head-to-head.”
He called the study an example of comparative effectiveness research, which has been advocated by many in health care overhaul discussions. Such research compares the effectiveness and cost of one treatment, procedure or medication against those of another treatment or medicine.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes pain and swelling in the joints of about 2.5 million Americans.
O’Dell said the disease also can bring on strokes and heart attacks. He said it’s important to treat the disease shortly after onset, before it has progressed and caused permanent damage.
Omahan John Weyant, 73, participated in the study and had good results with etanercept. But he found that after insurance, it would cost about $1,000 a month of his own money to use the injectable drug. Weyant, who is retired, said he couldn’t afford it.
O’Dell put him on the combination of drugs, or triple therapy, which cost Weyant about $100 a month. Weyant’s arthritis is in remission and he’s able to exercise and play golf.
O’Dell said the more expensive etanercept may kick in more quickly than combination therapy and provide relief a couple or a few weeks sooner. And in some cases, a patient might do better on etanercept while another might do better on triple therapy. In most cases, though, the results were similar, he said.
He said more research should be done on the matter. “One study is never the final answer,” O’Dell said.
Contact the writer:
444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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