Footnotes

• Handling editor Josef S Smolen

• Twitter @saskiaamber, @carmona_loreto, @pedrommcmachado

• Contributors SL-T analysed the data. SL-T and PMM drafted the first version of the manuscript. All authors revised the manuscript and approved the final version.

• Funding Financial support from the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology.

• Disclaimer The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European League Against Rheumatism, the UK National Health Service or the UK Department of Health, or any other organisation.

• Competing interests KLH reports she has received non-personal speaker’s fees from Abbvie and grant income from BMS, UCB, and Pfizer, all unrelated to this manuscript; KLH is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. LG reports personal consultant fees from AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Biogen, Celgene, Gilead, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Samsung Bioepis, Sanofi-Aventis and UCB, and grants from Amgen, Lilly, Janssen, Pfizer, Sandoz, Sanofi and Galapagos, all unrelated to this manuscript. AS reports research grants from a consortium of 14 companies (among them AbbVie, BMS, Celltrion, Fresenius Kabi, Gilead/Galapagos, Lilly, Mylan/Viatris, Hexal, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Samsung Bioepis, Sanofi-Aventis and UCB) supporting the German RABBIT register and personal fees from lectures for AbbVie, Celltrion, MSD, Roche, BMS and Pfizer, all outside the submitted work. LC has not received fees or personal grants from any laboratory, but her institute works by contract for laboratories among other institutions, such as Abbvie Spain, Eisai, Gebro Pharma, Merck Sharp & Dohme España, S.A., Novartis Farmaceutica, Pfizer, Roche Farma, Sanofi Aventis, Astellas Pharma, Actelion Pharmaceuticals España, Grünenthal GmbH and UCB Pharma. AR reports research grants and consultant fees from Amgen and Pfizer, all unrelated to this manuscript. CP has received research grants from Pharmaserve-Lilly, Faran and Demo, and speaking and consultant fees from Abbvie, Novartis, Genesis, Aenosasis, GSK and Pfizer, all unrelated to this manuscript. EFM reports that LPCDR received support for specific activities: grants from Abbvie, Novartis, Janssen-Cilag, Lilly Portugal, Sanofi, Grünenthal S.A., MSD, Celgene, Medac, Pharmakern and GAfPA; grants and non-financial support from Pfizer; non-financial support from Grünenthal GmbH, outside the submitted work. XM reports personal consultant fees from BMS, Galapagos, Gilead, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and UCB, and grants from Ose Pharmaceutical and Pfizer, all unrelated to this manuscript. PMM has received consulting/speaker’s fees from Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and UCB, all unrelated to this manuscript, and is supported by the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.

• Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were involved in the design, conduct, reporting or dissemination plans of this research.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.