BACKGROUND Biologic drugs are expensive treatments used in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Switching among them is common practice in patients who have had an inadequate response or intolerable adverse events. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) UK, which aims to curtail postcode prescribing, has provided guidance on the sequential prescription of these drugs. This study ...

Biologic drugs have provided excellent results in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. Nevertheless, in routine clinical practice, combinations of biologic drugs with phototherapy or systemic drugs can increase efficacy, diminish toxicity, and reduce the cost of treatment. Published experience with these combinations is scarce, although the results are often satisfactory. This review ...

Drugs form the mainstay of therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Five main classes of drugs are currently used: analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), glucocorticoids, nonbiologic and biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend that clinicians start biologic agents if patients have suboptimal response or intolerant to one or tw...

Biologic drugs represent an important new category of drugs in the effort to improve health outcomes in this country. Yet, these cutting-edge drugs are often cost prohibitive, preventing access for many Americans. Recognizing the need for more affordable, generic substitutes for biologic drugs—or biosimilars—Congress recently created a biosimilars approval pathway that would enable these cheape...

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic remittent or progressive inflammatory conditions that may affect the gastrointestinal tract. Crohn’s disease (CD) and Ulcerative colitis (UC) are two main phenotypes of IBD. Their etiopathogenesis has not been elucidated but is thought to involve a complex interplay among genetic, environmental, microbial and immune response (1). In the last two dec...

In the United States, probiotics that are intended to be used to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease in humans or other animals and that affect the structure or the function of the body are considered to be drugs. This article provides a brief overview of the historical basis of US regulation of drugs and biologics and explores the legal, regulatory, and policy considerations fo...