[Collagenosis and vasculitis-what is allowed in treatment?]

There has been a substantial improvement in treatment options for rheumatic diseases due to the approval of many new drugs. This general trend is also observable in rare diseases, which are predominant in the field of vasculitis and collagenosis, albeit in a lesser form; however, the usually high costs of new drugs lead to increased scrutiny of prescriptions by health insurances. Many of the medications used do not have an official approval for these indications, so that use outside the approval, a so-called off-label use, must often be strived for. Whereas this often does not occur with conventional immunosuppressive drugs due to the comparatively low risk of recourse, in many situations cost coverage for an off-label use should be requested in advance for biologicals.