Table 3

Indirect comparisons between biologicals in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) despite methotrexate (MTX) expressed in ORs for American College of Rheumatology 50% improvement (ACR50) response rate at 6 months (weeks 24 to 30), with sensitive analysis (exclusion of certolizumab trials)

	ACR50 response rate, OR (95% CI), p value
Indirect comparisons	Including certolizumab trials in the ‘all anti-TNFs group’^*	Excluding certolizumab trials of the ‘all anti-TNFs group’^*
All anti-TNF–all non-anti-TNF biologicals^†	1.55 (1.12 to 2.16), 0.008	1.30 (0.91 to 1.86), 0.15
All anti-TNF–rituximab16–18	1.62 (1.00 to 2.66), 0.05	1.36 (0.81 to 2.27), 0.24
All anti-TNF–abatacept7 19 20	1.81 (1.23 to 2.65), 0.002	1.52 (1.01 to 2.28), 0.04
All anti-TNF–tocilizumab21	0.92 (0.51 to 1.63), 0.77	0.77 (0.43 to 1.39), 0.38
Abatacept7 19 20–rituximab16–18	1.12 (0.66 to 1.89), 0.67	–
Rituximab16–18–tocilizumab21	0.57 (0.29 to 1.12), 0.10	–
Tocilizumab21–abatacept7 19 20	1.97 (1.08 to 3.59), 0.02	–

↵* Infliximab with the two doses (3 and 10 mg/kg) pooled7 8 plus etanercept9 plus adalimumab10,–,12 plus certolizumab13 14 plus golimumab.15
↵† All ‘non-anti-TNF biologicals’ means rituximab,16,–,18 abatacept7 19 20 and tocilizumab.21
TNF, tumour necrosis factor.