Been really struggling since October after initially having a response to Enbrel which I started in April 2014. Lot of pain, and stiffness and fatigue. Too unwell to go to work at the moment. Seen by rheumatology team today and given intramuscular steroids, and they felt that the Enbrel wasn't doing the job. So now have to choose between humira and cimzia. Doesn't seem a lot of difference so not sure how I'm going to do that.
I do travel quite a bit and the cimzia looks like it can't be carried at room temperature whereas the humira seems to be okay for two weeks out of the fridge.
So hoping that the steroid will kick in soon and give me the boost to be able to try and figure out what to do.
I used Enbrel for at least a year, in the beginning there was "some" relief but it never accomplished what the Dr's were hoping for. I was then switched to Humira it worked wonderfully for me for quite sometime and is still working great for my mother!
Pleased to hear that the switch was successful for you. Bit worried that if I have failed one biologic, the odds of responding to another have decreased a bit, although I realise that some of the biologics work slightly differently.
Aurora, I hope you don’t mind that I moved your post and gave it a new subject line. I really want you to get the input that you need for this decision. It’s difficult to make the choice, but in a way nice as well: it gives you some control over factors that may be important to you, such as storage when travelling.
I took Enbrel for a while and slowly it stopped working. I chose it as my first biologic and it worked wonderfully at first but fizzled after about 8 months. I believe that Humira is a little more "broad spectrum" and less specifically tailored to a specific PsA process than Enbrel and I have been taking it now for over a year. It hasn't been as spectacularly successful as Enbrel but it has endured longer. As an older drug, the track record for Humira is pretty lengthy and Cimzia is newer so there is less information out there for you to research.
I know you're in a tough situation in the UK with only getting a couple of shots at the biologics so I'm sure your brain is a stressful place to be right now. Good luck gathering your info and making your choice. If you're a member of Cuppa House you might want to post a thread there, too, for your UK friends to help out.
I have been on Cimzia for 1.5 years, doing well and feeling better than I have in years. I was prescribed Cimzia right after FDA approval for use in patients with PsA, there is still not a lot of patient feedback out there, it was approved for AS and RA first. One thing I did come across is that it's considered to be "pegylated" which makes it stay active in the body longer.