Comparison of costs associated with the use of etanercept, infliximab, and adalimumab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

A retrospective study of health plan costs related to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) revealed that etanercept was associated with the lowest drug and outpatient costs to the health plan than infliximab and adalimumab. Compared with etanercept, infliximab was related to 55% higher postindex RA-related monthly total health care costs paid by the health plan, based on adjusted analyses (95% confidence interval, 1.47-1.64). Patients receiving adalimumab had 12% higher costs (95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.21). The study showed the average dispensing dose increase was greatest for infliximab (17.4%) and least for etanercept (4.1%).