[Health economic aspects of a stratified medicine for rheumatoid arthritis]

Abstract

Up to now stratified therapy concepts have not played an important role in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis; however, a high heterogeneity regarding the effectiveness of therapies and occurrence of side effects in patients with the same indications provokes research efforts aiming at identifying and developing diagnostic biomarkers. Comprehensive diagnostics could lead to improved patient-oriented therapy algorithms and hence, a higher patient-relevant benefit could be achieved. Furthermore, costs for non-effective therapy options could be reduced, which might improve the cost-effectiveness of single active agents, especially biologicals. For the pharmaceutical industry an enhanced stratification of pharmaceuticals leads to smaller patient target groups and smaller markets on the one hand but on the other hand it may result in higher chances of receiving approval as well as higher reimbursement prices.