Key clinical point: Subcutaneous vs intravenous infliximab demonstrated improved efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were inadequate responders to methotrexate (methotrexate-IR).
Major finding: At week 30, subcutaneous vs intravenous infliximab led to significantly lower Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints-C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP; mean 3.07 vs 3.58; P = .0001) and significantly higher proportion of patients achieving DAS28-CRP low disease activity and remission (53.3% vs 38.5%; P = .0062), with no significant between-group difference after the switch to subcutaneous infliximab.
Study details: This post hoc analysis of a phase 3 trial included 339 patients with active RA who were methotrexate-IR and were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous or intravenous infliximab; patients assigned to receive intravenous infliximab switched to subcutaneous infliximab from week 30 to 54.
Disclosures: This study was supported by Celltrion Healthcare Co., Ltd. Five authors declared being full-time employees of or receiving personal fees for advisory board and speaker’s bureau and research grants from Celltrion outside this work. Several authors reported ties with other various sources.
Source: Constantin A et al. Efficacy of subcutaneous vs intravenous infliximab in rheumatoid arthritis: A post-hoc analysis of a randomised phase III trial. Rheumatology (Oxford) . 2022 (Dec 19). Doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac689