In a study of infliximab biosimilar ABP 710, patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who received this treatment were found to remain on it for a median follow-up of 295 days. Although most patients switched from the original medication, rates of return to the latter were generally low. The researchers highlighted the need for future research to understand the reasons for these changes and the differences in patterns between patients who had never received infliximab and those who switched.

ABP 710 is a drug approved by the US FDA to treat IBD-related immune-mediated diseases, such as Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

The approval of infliximab biosimilars for the treatment of CD and UC was based on extrapolation without indication-specific comparative clinical trial data. This was mentioned in an abstract presented at Digestive Diseases Week (DDW) 2023 by Ran Jin, MD, PhD, senior manager of observational research at Amgen Inc, and his colleagues. The retrospective analysis was performed using the Optum claims database and included adult patients with a diagnosis of CD or UC, verified using ICD-10 diagnosis codes. Eligible patients received ABP 710 between July 2020 and December 2021 and had an uninterrupted enrollment period of at least 183 days before and after treatment with ABP 710. Demographic and prior medication use data were collected at baseline.

The results showed that 83,9% of patients were classified as 'switchers', while 16,1% had never received infliximab. During follow-up, 74,5% of switchers and 51,3% of infliximab-naïve patients remained on ABP 710 without interruption. Some patients (5,3%) resumed ABP 710 after a discontinuation period defined as more than 90 days without treatment.

Regarding complete treatment discontinuation, 19,7% of infliximab-naïve patients and 6,1% of switchers stopped taking infliximab or targeted therapies. Furthermore, 23,7% of infliximab-naïve patients and 14,1% of switchers switched to another type of advanced therapy, with varying switching patterns between both cohorts.

In summary, this study on ABP 710 shows that the majority of IBD patients who switched to this biosimilar persisted on treatment, and return rates to the original medication were low. However, additional research is needed to better understand the reasons behind these changes and the differences in treatment patterns between infliximab-naïve patients and those who switched.