Moscow experience of using etanercept biosimilar in patients with immune-inflammatory rheumatic diseases

The growing demand for biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) and their high cost put a heavy burden on the healthcare budget, thereby limiting the availability of treatment for patients. The introduction of bDMARDs biosimilars into clinical practice has made it possible to expand the availability of therapy for a larger number of patients. Our analysis of the use of the biosimilar etanercept Erelzi in 103 patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed that the drug is highly effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It can be used both in bionaive patients with the ineffectiveness of basic therapy, and in the case of medical switching from other biologics (including tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors (iTNF)) and targeted synthetic basic anti-inflammatory drugs (tsDMARDs), as well as when non-medical switching is necessary. The biosimilar of etanercept Erelzi has optimal cost of treatment course and the lowest cost-effectiveness value, which means that its use will not affect the budget and will make highly effective therapy available to more patients.