[alistairSH]

Yup.

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).

[sparkie]

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.

Use of Azathioprine is still controversial for treatment of UC: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7034525/

I have no noticeable side-effects from taking Azathioprine.