Four-year follow-up of inflammatory arthropathy patients treated with golimumab: Data from the observational multicentre NOR-DMARD study

Objective To compare (1) golimumab drug survival and efficacy in bDMARD naive compared with non-naive rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondyloarthritis (ax-SpA) patients, (2) golimumab drug survival in RA and PsA patients treated with/without concomitant csDMARDs, (3) predictors of golimumab drug discontinuation. Methods Patients starting golimumab were included from the prospective observational multicenter Norwegian DMARD study. Drug survival was explored by Kaplan-Meier analyses with log rank test. Treatment responses were compared using ANCOVA. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of golimumab discontinuation. Results We included 808 patients (163 RA, 266 PsA, 379 ax-SpA). Golimumab drug survival after 1/2/4 years were not significantly different between bDMARD naive and non-naive patients (all, p ≥ 0.12; RA, p ≥ 0.07; PsA, p ≥ 0.28; ax-SpA, p ≥ 0.61), nor between RA (p ≥ 0.10) and PsA (p ≥ 0.07) patients treated with vs. without csDMARD comedication. bDMARD naive compared with non-naive ax-SpA patients had better 3-month ASDAS/BASDAI/MHAQ responses (p ≤ 0.02). bDMARD naive compared with non-naive RA and PsA patients had a trend towards better treatment responses. Identified predictors of 4-year golimumab discontinuation were patient's global and female gender in patients overall and in subgroups of PsA and ax-SpA patients, and patient's global and CRP in RA. Conclusion Golimumab drug survival was not significantly different between bDMARD naive and non-naive RA, PsA and ax-SpA patients, nor between RA and PsA patients treated with vs. without concomitant csDMARDs. Treatment responses were significantly better for bDMARD naive than non-naive ax-SpA patients. Identified predictors of golimumab discontinuation were patient's global and female gender in patients overall and in subgroups of PsA and ax-SpA patients, and patient's global and CRP in RA.