The 3 Rs Insurance Companies Might Not Like: Repeat Rituxan in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Mark Borigini, M.D. Health Professional Rheumatologist Mark James Borigini, MD, graduated from Hahnemann University (now... Subscribe: Mark Borigini, M.D.

Friday, January 11, 2008
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While the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibiting drugs have been a great addition in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, it must be remembered that they have a failure rate in up to 40% of patients. Thus, B-lymphocyte cells became one more target; TNF is not the only thing that can be attacked a...

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Rheumatoid Arthritis
Perry Tomlinson
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 09:11 AM
I Have stopped all Treatment,stick to gin & raisons mono vie & ellement rich salt from. The Himalayas ,wich took months to track down due to ellements such as cesium, rubidium ,micro electrick and alkanizing properties , I have minor pain after yrs of suffering ,I am 60 my blood pressure is spot on even went dancing the other night ?

re: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sunny
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 03:37 AM

Hi could you please tell me how u felt after the treatment of Rituxan iam 43 n getting very bad with RA iam scared to take this medicine the side effects Thanks

re: re: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Anonymous
Thursday, November 05, 2009 at 01:44 PM

I am 44, and took two courses of Rituxan in April 2009. Within a week my RA was gone. It had been very active and painful for the 9 months prior to the Rituxan treatment. Methotrexate alone had failed to help, and I was limited to the type of drug I was allowed to take due to also having MS (no biologics: Orencia, Remicade...). It has been over 7 months since the treatments, and still no re-emergence of the RA.

No negative side effects, and am not too worried about PML. If you can afford it and your insurance company approves it I would recommend trying it!

The 3 Rs Insurance Companies might Not Like...
Nilsa
Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 02:40 PM
The reason why insurance companies might not like Repeat Rituxan in Rheumatoid arthritis is in the product's labeling: "safety and efficacy of retreatment have not been established in controlled trials" (sections 2.4 and 5.14 of its package insert). Despite RA being a chronic disease, such language within rituximab's package insert is all the payers need to express their reluctance about approving repeat courses of this type of therapy... You do not find similar labeling for Remicade or Orencia. Hopefully, with emerging controlled trials, this situation will eventually reverse itself. Until then, patients and practitioners are being made participants of this labeling conundrum.

One interesting question about Rituxan is cost
Anonymous
Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 08:30 AM

Genotecn told me that Rituxan costs $2700 per 500 mg. Two of these for a 1000 mg infusion would be $5400. My doctor is billing $9000. The Insurance comapny claims to allow $8100. Where is this drug getting marked up 50% ? Or is it ? What I pay as a percentage of $8100 would be a lot higher percentage of $5400.