Persistence with biological drugs in patients treated in rheumatology practices in Germany

The goal of this study was to investigate the persistence with biological drugs in patients treated in rheumatology practices in Germany. This study included patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PA), or ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who received a first prescription of biological drugs between 2008 and 2016 (index date) in 21 rheumatology practices in Germany (n = 4925; Disease Analyzer database). The main outcome measure was the rate of persistence within 5 years of the index date. Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed to study treatment persistence as a function of diagnosis, gender and age. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the relationship between non-persistence and diagnosis, gender, age, and comorbidities. After 5 years of follow-up, the rate of persistence was 31.8% in patients with RA, 35.2% in those with AS, and 33.2% in those with PA (log-rank p value = 0.028). Furthermore, 33.8% of men and 31.9% of women were persistent (log-rank p value = 0.035). The rate of persistence was 20.8%, 27.9%, 33.0%, 36.6%, 35.2%, and 32.0% in people aged ≤ 30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, and > 70 years, respectively (log-rank p value = 0.002). The risk of discontinuation was lower in participants diagnosed with AS than in those diagnosed with RA [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.87; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-0.96]. In addition, patients aged ≤ 30 years were more likely to discontinue their biological therapy than those aged > 70 years (HR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.10-1.52). Persistence with biological drugs was low after 5 years of follow-up in rheumatology practices.