In our real-world infliximab transition study among consented immune-mediated inflammatory disease patients, we corroborated a nocebo-effect rate of 13% [1].
Regarding these results, one can conclude that we did observe a relatively high rate of non-specific treatment effects for costly, “state-of-the-art” drug therapy. This presupposes that physicians and other healthcare providers have influence on the extent to which patients experience the effect of their medicines. Therefore, the confidence of physicians with biosimilars and the biosimilarity concept is key, which is also underscored in the study of van Overbeeke et al. [2].
Given the high degree of uncertainty about the effectiveness and safety of biosimilars, even in bio-naïve patients, as reported by Pineles and colleagues, it seems that the more emphasis is placed on the alleged risk differences between the originator drug and its biosimilar, the more patients become uncertain. After all, the product changes that were made to the originator drug during the patent period did not concern any physician or patient [3].
References
Boone NW, Liu L, Romberg-camps MJ et al (2018) The nocebo effect challenges the nonmedical infliximab switch in practice. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 74(5):655–661
van Overbeeke E, de Beleyr B, de Hoon J, Westhovens R, Huys I (2017) Perception of originator biologics and biosimilars: a survey among Belgian rheumatoid arthritis patients and rheumatologists. BioDrugs 31(5):447–459
Schiestl M, Stangler T (2011) Acceptable changes in quality attributes of glycosylated biopharmaceuticals. Nat Biotechnol 29:310–312
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boone, N.W. Non-specific treatment effects and the patient perception of costly drug therapy. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 74, 1363 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-018-2491-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-018-2491-8