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Correspondence response
Response to H Zeidler's comments on the CONCERTO study
  1. Gerd R Burmester1,
  2. Alan Kivitz2,
  3. Hartmut Kupper3,
  4. Udayasankar Arulmani4,
  5. Stefan Florentinus5,
  6. Sandra L Goss4,
  7. Suchitrita S Rathmann4,
  8. Roy M Fleischmann6
  1. 1Charité—University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  2. 2Altoona Center for Clinical Research, Duncansville, Pennsylvania, USA
  3. 3AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Ludwigshafen, Germany
  4. 4AbbVie Inc., North Chicago, Illinois, USA
  5. 5AbbVie, Rungis, France
  6. 6University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, Texas, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Gerd R Burmester, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité University Hospital, Berlin 10117, Germany; gerd.burmester{at}charite.de

https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205704

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    We thank Dr Zeidler for his interest in our manuscript,1 expressed in his recent letter to the editor.2 While Dr Zeidler raises interesting questions regarding methotrexate (MTX) bioavailability and the differences between oral and subcutaneous formulations of MTX, these are outside the scope of the CONCERTO study. Thus, it is important to reiterate that the objective of the study was to assess the oral dose of (MTX), which when co-administered with the tumour necrosis factor inhibitor, adalimumab (ADA), is required to optimise the benefit:risk profile in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), who were MTX naive. We agree with Dr Zeidler that this is not the usual course, nor one generally recommended by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), of initiating a biological therapy for the treatment of RA; however, it was critical to assess …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All the authors were involved in drafting the letter, revising it for intellectual content and have given final approval of the version to be published. Medical writing support was provided by Naina Barretto, PhD, of AbbVie Inc.

    • Funding AbbVie Inc. sponsored the CONCERTO study, contributed to its design, participated in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, and in the writing, reviewing and approval of the final manuscript.

    • Competing interests GRB has received research grants and consulting fees or other remuneration from, and served on speakers’ bureaus on behalf of AbbVie Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Roche, Pfizer, and UCB. AJK has received research grants from AbbVie Inc, Pfizer, Genentech, UCB, Amgen, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Astra-Zeneca and Janssen, and has received consulting fees or other remuneration from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, UCB and Pfizer and served on speakers’ bureaus on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech and Pfizer. HK, UA, SF, SLG and SSR are all full-time employees of AbbVie Inc and may hold stock or stock options. RMF has received research grants and consulting fees from AbbVie Inc, Pfizer, Merck, Roche, UCB, Celgene, Amgen, Astra-Zeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, Lilly and Novartis.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

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