Cimzia

Today I went to my GI and was told that my Remicade would eventually stop working and that we need to start looking into alternative treatments when it does.  He gave me a brochure on Cimzia.  It is a injection given under the skin.... I was just curious if anyone has tried this and what their response has been to it?  Any input would be appreciated....

I took it while it was still in clinical trial stages and am on it again.  Until recently, it had kept my Crohn's in remission and I have been on it for a total of 2 years.  It has not helped much with arthritis, though.  Also, it worked great doing the loading doses but wears off too soon once you go to monthly shots.  My docs say they can't get it approved more often (I got it every 2 weeks on the clinical trial and it worked much better that way).  We are currently doing half a dose (one shot) every 2 weeks instead, but it still isn't working great.  My rheumy said none of her RA patients are seeing great results once they go to the monthly shots.  But, for the year that I was on the clinical trial getting a full dose every 2 weeks, it was a life saver.  I hope it works for you!

cleo, you are correct that others on here get it more often.  Many get Humira weekly but I have asked over and over and been told by both my GI and rheumy that they cannot get it approved more often, regardless of what type of insurance I have.  They both say they have tried with several patients on a variety of insurances and have always been denied.  I don't know what the issue is.  I've told them that I know others who get it more often.  When I first asked my rheumy about the Cimzia, she talked to the drug rep and was told that it probably wouldn't get approved by insurance more than once every 4 weeks but that if a doctor had some samples they could choose to give a patient an extra "boost" once or twice.  That being said, he said that if a patient needs that extra boost on a regular occasion, then the Cimzia really isn't working for them and they need to be on something else anyway.  I asked her again about it a couple months back and she said the new research is showing that Cimzia is actually less effective when taken more than 400 mg once every 4 weeks.  I don't believe that one bit because it worked so much better for me when I was getting 400 mg every 2 weeks on the clinical trial.  But anyway, for some reason, everyone in the world other than patients of my two doctors can get both Humira and Cimzia more often. 

I went from Remicade to Humira to Cimzia. I had good success with all of them, though I was only on Cimzia for about 4 months before we decided that it was too far gone and I needed surgery. I know it was working, though, because my joint pain and other manifestations disappeared during that time.

Humira and Cimzia are both injections. Humira burned like hell so I preferred Cimzia, though the Cimzia is very thick and takes quite a bit of pressure to get in. I didn't think it hurt at all.

No side effects from it at all.