Cimzia

My experience on Cimzia was a bit forgetable.  I really don't mean that in a bad way though.  As it turns out after I was told I couldn't take Actemra anymore we were at a bit of an impasse.  According to the rules of Medicare for biological drugs in Australia I was only going to get 2 more chances that the government was willing to pay for.  It just so happened that at the time I came off the Actemra and was looking for a new drug Cimzia started a program in Australia.  The makers of Cimzia were fully expecting the drug to be put on the PBS within 6 months.  So anyone who signed up before a certain time would get to trial the drug while waiting for it to make the PBS.  The advantage of this trial was that the manufacturer was going to provide all the shots.  Then if you responded well enough Medicare would take over paying for the injections. It was a fortnightly injection and was to be honest packaged in a much more RA friendly way than either Enbrel or Humira. I put photos of the actual kit Cimzia sent to me for the injections.  The pic of the syringe is how it actually looks.  I was able to get the top off of the injection and inject with my RA riddled hands.

I can't remember any overly apparent side effects from Cimzia.  I got headaches and muscle aches.  Basically all the things I already had because I have RA and Fibro, oh and the migraines and other stuff as well.

Kit sent out by Cimzia

I did respond to Cimzia, better even than Enbrel.  It hurt less than the other self injections I have done.  It is a good drug that did show positive signs for me.  I remember that after 6 months my CRP dropped down to 15.  For me that is a really good response.  Especially considering we weren't thinking a TNF Blocker would work at all.

 My Rheumy though now has her sights set on remission.  She had started to think that was impossible in my case, but since the Actemra did put me into remission she knows it is possible now.  At the same time that she ordered the Cimzia she started petitioning Medicare to get Actemra removes as one of my 5 choices.  I never actually failed it, and because of that she felt I should not be disadvantaged by having it remain as one of the 5 fails.

So I don't have much to say about Cimzia overall, but I didn't have a bad reaction and experience with it either.
http://www.cimzia.com/