Study says abatacept and adalimumab offer comparable benefits in RA

Clinical outcomes of ABA and ADA treatments were comparable in an RA patient cohort.

Subcutaneous abatacept (ABA) and adalimumab (ADA) provide comparable benefits and safety levels in patients with the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
This is according to findings from a two-year head-to-head biologics clinical trial AMPLE, which were presented at EULAR 2013 - Annual European Congress of Rheumatology event.
Researchers recruited 646 patients affected by the autoimmune disease into an experiment and randomly assigned them into the ABA or ADA group.
Lead author Dr Michael Schiff, of the University of Colorado, and colleagues analysed the results and found that patient outcomes were similar at one and two years.
He said: "This robust data set demonstrates that subcutaneous abatacept and adalimumab are equally efficacious in clinical, functional and radiographic outcomes."
Safety levels were also comparable, with results showing that rates of adverse events and serious adverse events varied little, between 13.8 per cent (ABA) and 16.5 per cent (ADA).
The findings could provide doctors with more options when it comes to treating RA, which affects an estimated 21 million people worldwide, seriously compromising quality of life.