ArticleBMC health services research2022
Exploring drug cost and disease outcome in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs in Norway in 2010-2019 - a country with a national tender system for prescription of costly drugs.
Article in BMC health services research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Pharmacological pain management in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a narrative literature review.BMC medicine · 2025Review
- Treating rheumatoid arthritis in Zanzibar: a cost effectiveness study comparing conventional, biologic, and targeted-synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Economic and Humanistic Burden of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results From the US National Survey Data 2018-2020.ACR open rheumatology · 2024Article
- Initial Treatment with Biological Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Exploring the impact of the national tender system on the use of costly drugs treating rheumatoid arthritis patients in ten rheumatology centers in Norway (2010-2019).BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Budget impact analysis and treatment availability with biosimilar TNF inhibitors in rheumatic diseases in Poland: real-world evidence using a nationwide database.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023Article
- Real-world experience of rituximab biosimilar GP2013 in rheumatoid arthritis patients naïve to or switched from reference rituximab.Rheumatology international · 2023Observational
- Exercise Self-Efficacy and patient global assessment were associated with 6-min walk test distance in persons with rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 9 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn Norway, an annual tender system for the prescription of biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs) has been used since 2007. This study aimed to explore annual b/tsDMARDs costs and disease outcomes in Norwegian rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients between 2010 and 2019 under the influence of the tender system.
methodsRA patients monitored in ordinary clinical practice were recruited from 10 Norwegian centers. Data files from each center for each year were collected to explore demographics, disease outcomes, and the prescribed treatment. The cost of b/tsDMARDs was calculated based on the drug price given in the annual tender process.
resultsThe number of registered RA patients increased from 4909 in 2010 to 9335 in 2019. The percentage of patients receiving a b/tsDMARD was 39% in 2010 and 45% in 2019. The proportion of b/tsDMARDs treated patients achieving DAS28 remission increased from 42 to 67%. The estimated mean annual cost to treat a patient on b/tsDMARDs fell by 47%, from 13.1 thousand euros (EUR) in 2010 to 6.9 thousand EUR in 2019. The mean annual cost to treat b/tsDMARDs naïve patients was reduced by 75% (13.0 thousand EUR in 2010 and 3.2 thousand EUR in 2019).
conclusionsIn the period 2010-2019, b/tsDMARD treatment costs for Norwegian RA patients were significantly reduced, whereas DAS28 remission rates increased. Our data may indicate that the health authorities' intention to reduce treatment costs by implementing a tender system has been successful.
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