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Proposal for a new nomenclature of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs
  1. Josef S Smolen1,2,
  2. Désirée van der Heijde3,
  3. Klaus P Machold1,
  4. Daniel Aletaha1,
  5. Robert Landewé4
  1. 1Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine 3, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  2. 22nd Department of Medicine, Hietzing Hospital Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  3. 3Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  4. 4Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, and Atrium Medical Center, Heerlen, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Professor Josef S Smolen, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine 3, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, Vienna A-1090, Austria; josef.smolen{at}wienkav.at

Abstract

In light of the recent emergence of new therapeutics for rheumatoid arthritis, such as kinase inhibitors and biosimilars, a new nomenclature for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which are currently often classified as synthetic (or chemical) DMARDs (sDMARDS) and biological DMARDs (bDMARDs), may be needed. We propose to divide the latter into biological original and biosimilar DMARDs (boDMARDs and bsDMARDs, respectively, such as abatacept, adalimumab, anakinra, certolizumab pegol, etanercept, golimumab, infliximab, rituximab or tocilizumab, but also emerging ones like clazakizumab, ixekizumab, sarilumab, secukinumab or sirukumab) and the former into conventional synthetic and targeted synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs and tsDMARDs, respectively). tsDMARDs would then constitute only those that were specifically developed to target a particular molecular structure (such as tofacitinib, fostamatinib, baricitinib or apremilast, or agents not focused primarily on rheumatic diseases, such as imatinib or ibrutinib), while csDMARDs would comprise the traditional drugs (such as methotrexate, sulfasalazine, leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine, gold salts and others). The proposed nomenclature may provide means to group and distinguish the different types of DMARDs in clinical studies and review articles.

  • DMARDs (biologic)
  • DMARDs (synthetic)
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Treatment
  • Outcomes research

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