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Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Apr 14 9:29pm | Replies (27)
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As far as I know she's still taking Actemra with no problems and also taking a relatively low dose of prednisone (~7 mg).
I guess people with PMR can take Kevzara now if their PMR is resistant to standard treatment with prednisone? Just out of curiosity I tried to price Actemra and Kevzara a few months ago for what they would cost without insurance or financial assistance. At that time it looked like Actemra cost $65,000 per year, and Kevzara was $100,000. I think Actemra has come down now to around 55k due to other forms of Tocilzumab becoming available.
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Yes ... there are a couple of biosimilars to Actemra (tocilizumab). This is beneficial for people with GCA. The cost of Actemra should start to decrease because of the competition from lower cost biosimilars.
Actemra was FDA approved for GCA in 2017 and now the biosimilars are also approved for GCA the United States. I don't think anything except Prednisone is used very often in Europe because of the expense. I don't know which governing body approves the use of biologics in the EU. The UK withdrew from the EU so I don't know what the status there is.
"Actemra (tocilizumab) has several biosimilars, including TOFIDENCE (tocilizumab-bavi), TYENNE (tocilizumab-aazg), and AVTOZMA (tocilizumab-anoh). These biosimilars are intended to be therapeutic alternatives for treating conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and others for which Actemra is also indicated."
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The above allows me to be artificially intelligent. I can't rely on my own intelligence.
Kevzara was FDA approved for PMR 2023. Prior to 2023 it was also approved for several other autoimmune conditions. Kevzara isn't that new but newer than Actemra. There aren't any biosimilars to Kevzara because it is still under patent. Both Actemra and Kevzara are IL-6 blockers but they are not identical.
Since IL-6 was the primary cytokine implicated in PMR and GCA either biologic might work for both conditions. However, the FDA requires rigorous research before approval is granted.
For the time being, Actemra is only approved for GCA. Kevzara is only approved for PMR. If a person has both PMR and GCA, either biologic MAY work but there aren't any guarantees in medicine.
My rheumatologist had to seek authorization to get Actemra approved for me. I was diagnosed with refractory PMR. Part of reason for the approval he received was my inability to taper off Prednisone and because all other alternatives failed. Nobody wanted me on Prednisone for the rest of my life and no rules were broken.
I was started on Actemra in 2019 but now my rheumatologist says Kevzara is another option. He says other types of biologics are on the horizon that might work even better if Actemra stops working.