Objectives: We aimed to demonstrate that the proportion of rheumatoid arthritis patients achieving 20%/50%/70% improvement in American College of Rheumatology (ACR20/50/70) responses to Food and Drug Administration-approved biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) after an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) and after failure of the first bDMARDs followed a consistent pattern.
Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed in accordance with MECIR (Methodological Expectations for Cochrane Intervention Reviews) standards. Two separate groups of randomized controlled trials were included: the first group included studies with biologic-naive patients who added bDMARD to MTX as intervention arm compared with the placebo plus MTX group.