The article 'Therapeutic equivalence of biosimilar medicines and reference biologics in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis' examines the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of biosimilars adalimumab, etanercept and infliximab compared to their reference biologics in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

To carry out this systematic review, randomized clinical trials that directly compared biosimilars with reference biologics in RA were searched in medical databases from their inception to September 2021.

The results were based on 25 clinical trials that included 10,642 patients with moderate to severe RA. Biosimilars were shown to be equivalent to reference biologics in terms of response to the 20% improvement criterion on core set measures (ACR20) and Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) score. . Furthermore, no significant differences in terms of safety and immunogenicity were observed between biosimilars and reference biologics.

In summary, this study shows that biosimilars of adalimumab, infliximab and etanercept are equally effective as their reference biologics in the treatment of RA. These findings support the therapeutic equivalence of biosimilars compared to reference biologics, which could have a positive impact on access to therapy and associated costs in the treatment of RA.