EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis with synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: 2019 update

These updated recommendations provide consensus on the management of rheumatoid arthritis with respect to benefit, safety, preferences and cost, based on two systematic literature searches on efficacy and safety DMARDs since the last update (2016) until 2019.

SPS commentary:

Two systematic literature reviews on the efficacy and safety of synthetic and biological DMARDs informed this update. Review on safety confirmed the known safety profile of biological DMARDs, except for the possibly increased risk of venous thromboembolism with JAK inhibitors, which needs further evaluation. Amongst the findings of review on efficacy was that switching to another tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) or non-TNFi biological DMARDs after TNFi treatment failure is efficacious, and biosimilars are non-inferior to their reference products.

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

Resource links:

Systematic review (safety)

Systematic review (efficacy)