US patients grapple with high cost of arthritis medicines

The first national investigation of the USA’s Medicare coverage of biologic disease modifying drugs (DMARDs) found that, in starting a single biologic DMARD, patients face more than $2,700 in co-payments each year before receiving relief from catastrophic coverage.

Results published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), show that, during the initial phase of coverage, most people are expected to pay a striking 29.6% of total biologic drugs costs (just under one-third) out-of-pocket, creating an enormous financial burden for patients with chronic, rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

RA is a chronic autoimmune disease affecting 1.3 million Americans. Medical evidence shows that until the late 1990s, one in three RA patients were permanently disabled within five years of disease onset. Over the last decade there has been significant improvement in treatment, with disease control now possible for many RA patients who receive early, aggressive DMARD therapy.