CHRONIC IMMUNOLOGICAL DISEASES AND TREATMENT FAILURE
Chronic immunological diseases require treatment over an extended period of time. After a while, the brand name biologic or biosimilar treatment might stop working for a particular patient – this is called a “treatment failure”.1
Clinical trials have shown that a substantial proportion of patients
experience treatment failure. This can result from patients:2
-
Failing to respond to treatment or having an inadequate response (called “primary failure”)
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Losing response to treatment over time (called “secondary failure”)
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Developing an adverse event
Treatment failure often results in patients switching to a different biologic therapy.3
For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, international treatment guidelines recommend that a new biologic therapy be considered after treatment failure, either from the same biologic class (i.e., the same target) or a different class (i.e., a new target) altogether.3
After treatment failure, patients may be
SWITCHED TO A BIOLOGIC TREATMENT
OPTION that has a DIFFERENT TARGET3
Patients may require MULTIPLE BRAND NAME BIOLOGICS AND BIOSIMILARS over the course of their disease