Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
We would like to thank Huang et al 1 for their interest in our study2 and the opportunity to discuss some aspects in more detail.
The limited sample size precluded subgroup analyses with regard to either the type of tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) agent or the reason for discontinuation of the previous biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD). Moreover, drug discontinuation might be due to a combination of reasons (eg, only partial effectiveness combined with otherwise acceptable adverse events (AE)) further impeding this type of analysis in a real-world setting and requiring the definition of a hierarchy of reasons for discontinuation as introduced in a previous study.3
We have used two different statistical methods to account for …
Footnotes
Handling editor Josef S Smolen
Funding The original study discussed in this correspondence was supported by a research grant from Novartis.
Competing interests AC has received consulting and/or speaking fees from AbbVie, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis and Pfizer, outside the submitted work. RM has received consulting and/or speaking fees from Gilead, Eli Lilly and AbbVie, outside the submitted work.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.