Praying for generic adalimumab to finally hit the US market. People overseas have been getting this stuff for a hundred bucks a pop for years now, but AbbVie's done everything in their power to extend the US patent for as long as possible. They'd milk us forever if they could.
Family member is on Remicade. It's administered in two doses (IV infusions) every 4 months, so 6 treatments/year. And retails for something like $12k/treatment. And many insurance companies have removed it from their list of preferred drugs due to the cost, leaving patients to fight for medically necessary treatment.
It's a fucking nightmare (as if RA on it's own isn't bad enough).
My body created an antibody to infliximab after about 6 months of treatment and I had a bad reaction to it. 6 months of expensive treatment wasted.
Doc replaced it with Azathioprine, a cheap generic, and I've had no major flare-ups of UC in 6 years.
If I have minor symptoms (usually triggered by certain foods), I also take mesalazine, but once I am in remission I can do without the mesalazine. If I withdraw from AZA when I am in remission, minor symptoms typically return after around 3 months, but subside after I resume taking the AZA for a couple of months. I can retain remission doing 3 months on, 3 months off.