Briefly noted: A Meyer et al. Ann Intern Med. 2018. DOI: 10.7326/M18-1512

Abstract link: Effectiveness and Safety of Reference Infliximab and Biosimilar in Crohn Disease: A French Equivalence Study

In this study with 5050 patients, based on review of an administration database, the authors found the following:

• In multivariable analysis of the primary outcome, CT-P13 (biosimilar) was equivalent to infliximab reference product (RP) (HR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.85 to 0.99]). 1147 patients in the RP group and 952 patients in the CT-P13 group met the composite end point (including 838 and 719 hospitalizations, respectively).
• No differences in safety outcomes were observed between the 2 groups: serious infections (HR, 0.82 [CI, 0.61 to 1.11]), tuberculosis (HR, 1.10 [CI, 0.36 to 3.34]), and solid or hematologic cancer (HR, 0.66 [CI, 0.33 to 1.32]).

The authors conclude that “real-world data indicates that the effectiveness of CT-P13 is equivalent to that of RP for infliximab-naive patients with CD.”

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