Question
I’m a 44 year old woman with a 20 year history of severe non-responsive RA. Having been through all of the other biologics my rheumatologist feels it is time to move on to one of the new drugs. I have no known allergies and luckily have not had any previous serious side effects. I am currently on Arava and have just been taken off Remicade. In your clinic’s experience which drug seems to be more quickly effective or shown to be non-effective faster?
Answer
The decision about which drug to use is a difficult one. The short answer is that it appears from the clinical trials that Orencia takes longer to work (achieve maximum effectiveness), possibly beyond 3 months.
