Background: Pegloticase is a recombinant porcine-like uricase enzyme that is FDA-approved for the treatment of chronic refractory gout in adults. Some patients receiving pegloticase develop anti-drug antibodies, which leads to both loss of pegloticase efficacy and an increased risk for infusion reactions. In the pivotal trials, all patients received pre-infusion medications before each pegloticase dose, including intravenous (IV) hydrocortisone. In clinical practice, many clinicians use methylprednisolone for pre-infusion therapy with pegloticase; however, the efficacy of methylprednisolone compared with hydrocortisone as a pre-infusion medication for pegloticase has not been established.
Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of methylprednisolone versus hydrocortisone as a pre-infusion medication for pegloticase.
Methods: Data were retrospectively collected from 92 qualifying patients treated with pegloticase and administered pre-infusion prophylaxis with either intravenous hydrocortisone or methylprednisolone. Patient demographics, steroid type and dose, duration of pegloticase therapy, overall number of infusions, and number of infusion reactions were assessed.
Results: Patients treated with methylprednisolone as a pre-infusion medication received on average 8.5 pegloticase infusions versus 4.9 infusions for patients who were treated with hydrocortisone (p < 0.001). In addition, a significantly lower proportion of patients receiving methylprednisolone had their course of therapy terminated early due to infusion reactions (8.2%) versus patients receiving hydrocortisone (41.9%, p < 0.01).
Conclusion: In this retrospective chart-review project, patients were able to have a longer duration of pegloticase therapy, received a significantly greater number of infusions, and experienced fewer infusion reactions when methylprednisolone was used as the corticosteroid for pre-infusion prophylaxis compared with hydrocortisone.