Description:
Aim: Evaluation of dose escalation and costs among rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with intravenous abatacept, intravenous infliximab or intravenous tocilizumab. Materials & methods: Adults with rheumatoid arthritis and biologic treatment were identified from the MarketScan ® Research databases. Study outcomes included dose escalation, per-patient per-month (PPPM) biologic costs and PPPM all-cause total healthcare costs. Impact of dose escalation on biologic costs was estimated using multivariate analyses. Results: The sample included 6181 patients. Infliximab and tocilizumab cohorts had significantly higher likelihood for dose escalation than abatacept cohort; incremental PPPM impacts of dose escalation on costs were statistically significant for each biologic (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Patients initiating abatacept were least likely to escalate dose and had lowest incremental impact of dose escalation on cost compared with patients with infliximab or tocilizumab.