Real-world patient characteristics and use of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-national study.

"Declarations Ethics approvalThe protocol for this study using Optum data received ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts). Informed consentThe manuscript does not contain clinical studies or patient data. For this type of study, formal consent is not required. Conflict of interestYlenia Ingrasciotta is the CEO of the academic spin-off “INSPIRE srl” of the University of Messina, which has received funding for conducting observational studies from contract research organizations (RTI Health Solutions, Pharmo Institute N.V.) and from pharmaceutical Companies (Chiesi Italia, Kyowa Kirin s.r.l., Daiichi Sankyo Italia S.p.A.). Gianluca Trifirò has served on advisory boards/seminars funded by SANOFI, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Abbvie, Servier, Mylan, Gilead, and Amgen; he was the scientific director of a II level Master on pharmacovigilance, pharmacoepidemiology, and real-world evidence, which has received non-conditional contributions from various pharmaceutical companies; he coordinates a pharmacoepidemiology team at the University of Messina, which has received funding for conducting observational studies from various pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, PTC Pharmaceuticals). He is also chief of the academic spin-off “INSPIRE srl,” which has received funding for conducting observational studies from contract research organizations (RTI Health Solutions, Pharmo Institute N.V.) from pharmaceutical Companies (Chiesi Italia, Kyowa Kirin s.r.l., Daiichi Sankyo Italia S.p.A.). Seoyoung C. Kim has received research grants to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Pfizer, Roche, AbbVie, and Bristol-Myers Squibb for unrelated studies. She is also supported by NIH-K24AR078959. The other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Conflict of interest Ylenia Ingrasciotta is the CEO of the academic spin-off “INSPIRE srl” of the University of Messina, which has received funding for conducting observational studies from contract research organizations (RTI Health Solutions, Pharmo Institute N.V.) and from pharmaceutical Companies (Chiesi Italia, Kyowa Kirin s.r.l., Daiichi Sankyo Italia S.p.A.). Gianluca Trifirò has served on advisory boards/seminars funded by SANOFI, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Abbvie, Servier, Mylan, Gilead, and Amgen; he was the scientific director of a II level Master on pharmacovigilance, pharmacoepidemiology, and real-world evidence, which has received non-conditional contributions from various pharmaceutical companies; he coordinates a pharmacoepidemiology team at the University of Messina, which has received funding for conducting observational studies from various pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, PTC Pharmaceuticals). He is also chief of the academic spin-off “INSPIRE srl,” which has received funding for conducting observational studies from contract research organizations (RTI Health Solutions, Pharmo Institute N.V.) from pharmaceutical Companies (Chiesi Italia, Kyowa Kirin s.r.l., Daiichi Sankyo Italia S.p.A.). Seoyoung C. Kim has received research grants to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Pfizer, Roche, AbbVie, and Bristol-Myers Squibb for unrelated studies. She is also supported by NIH-K24AR078959. The other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest."

"Funding This study was in part supported by the internal resources of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital."