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What was your experience on Kevzara?
I am curious about other’s experience with KEVZARA. I am currently taking 11 mg of Prednisone, down from 60 mg in April 2024. I am continuing to experience pain and stiffness daily, especially in the late evening and the morning. I am also fatigued most days. I am on an anti-inflammatory diet, walk daily and do a little restorative yoga. My Rheumatologist suggests going back up to 12.5 mg but I do not think that will be helpful as it will only lengthen the time I am on a drug that appears to not be helpful. She has suggested KEVZARA and we are now waiting on approval from my insurance company. My questions are: should I wait a bit and stay at 11 mg to see if anything changes (I have been on this dose for 4 weeks) before I start KEVZARA? Is it too soon in my treatment to start a biologic? It seems as tho my autoimmune system is not responding to the Prednisone or maybe I need more patience? My doctor was vague on these questions. Thank you in advance, I really appreciate this forum!
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I started my PMR journey in July started on 20mg. Rheumatologist started me on Kevzara when I reach 12.5 mg. Decreasing at 2.5mg every two weeks and started Kevzara injection every 2weeks when I decreased the Pred. I am now on Kevzara only and no Pred. Feel fabulous. So side effects and happy to not have the side effects I was suffering from the Pred.
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5 Reactions@laurelfagan
It is incredible that you were able to get off Prednisone so quickly after Kevzara was started. So many people are told to "expect" to take Prednisone for a couple of years and do an ultra slow taper when they are diagnosed with PMR.
I took Prednisone for 12 years after I was diagnosed. I was encouraged to remain on Prednisone for the rest of my life instead of taking a biologic. Fortunately, I elected to try the biologic for PMR instead of Prednisone for the rest of my life. It still took me a year to taper off Prednisone. I think it took me longer because my body was dependent on me taking Prednisone because of adrenal insufficiency.
“Corticosteroids have been the primary treatment to date, but many patients do not adequately respond to steroids or cannot be tapered off steroids, which puts such patients at risk of complications from long-term steroid therapy,”
The following link explains why you were so fortunate.
https://www.everydayhealth.com/rheumatic-diseases/fda-approves-steroid-free-treatment-for-polymyalgia-rheumatica/