PAPER OF THE WEEK: In 2002, Researchers Found Early Use of Etanercept Improved Quality of Life In RA

This year, The American Journal of Managed Care^® celebrates its 25th anniversary. The print journal is the leading source of peer-reviewed literature on healthcare outcomes, but today, the AJMC^® family of publications and multimedia is much more. As part of our anniversary celebration, today we launch “Paper of the Week,” which will look back at some of the most influential research articles and commentary that have appeared in The American Journal of Managed Care^® over the past 25 years, and why they are important today.

This week’s paper is from March 2002.

“Health-Related Quality of Life in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis: Impact of Disease and Treatment Response” used 2 different scoring systems to measure both general health status and specific effects of RA, both before and after patients received the biologic etanercept, sold as Enbrel by Amgen.

The authors, led by Mark Kosinski, MA, of QualityMetric, Inc (now part of Optum), showed that starting patients on etanercept early in the progression of RA brought a rapid response in their quality of life.

The paper has been cited more than 200 times, and Enbrel went on to become Amgen’s top-selling product.

Enbrel is so important that Amgen went to court last year and won a major federal patent case to protect Enbrel against biosimilar competitors. AJMC^®’s sister site, the Center for Biosimilars®, has covered the patent dispute, and you can learn more from the podcast Not So Different.

To read our Paper of the Week, visit ajmc.com.

And for the October podcast, visit our Center for Biosimilars.