Interventions and therapeutic compounds of trials included for review
| Intervention | No of articles/ abstracts* | Therapeutic compound | Target |
| csDMARDs, csDMARD combination, Glucocorticoids versus other csDMARDs or placebo (10–12 130 131) | 5 | Tacrolimus +methotrexate (MTX) versus leflunomide+MTX | FKBP12; dihydrofolate reductase +purine metabolism; dihydroorotate dehydrogenase |
| MTX+sulfasalazine + glucocorticoids versus MTX +glucocorticoids versus MTX +Leflunomide +Glucocorticoids | |||
| MTX versus MTX+glucocorticoids | |||
| MTX+sulfasalazine + Hydroxychloroquine versus leflunomide +sulfasalazine + hydroxychloroquine versus leflunomide monotherapy | |||
|
bDMARD ±csDMARDs versus placebo
(13–29 132–136) | 21 | BCD-020 | CD-20 |
| SBI-087 | |||
| Tregalizumab | CD-4 | ||
| Abatacept | CD-80/CD-86 | ||
| Certolizumab pegol | TNF | ||
| Olokizumab | IL-6 | ||
| Sirukumab | |||
| Sarilumab | IL-6 receptor | ||
| Vobarilizumab | |||
| CNTO6785 | IL-17 | ||
| Secukinumab | |||
| Otilimab | GM-CSF | ||
| Mavrilimumab | GM-CSF receptor | ||
| Ustekinumab | IL-12/23 | ||
| Guselkumab | IL-23 | ||
| bDMARDs versus other bDMARDs (4 62–66 137 138) | 8 | Rituximab versus etanercept/adalimumab | CD-20 versus TNF |
| ABT-122 versus adalimumab | TNF/IL-17A versus TNF | ||
| Certolizumab pegol versus adalimumab | TNF | ||
| Sirukumab versus adalimumab | IL-6 versus TNF | ||
| Sarilumab versus adalimumab | IL-6 receptor versus TNF | ||
| Secukinumab versus abatacept | IL-17 versus CD-80/CD-86 | ||
| Mavrilimumab versus golimumab | GM-CSF versus TNF | ||
| bDMARD induction versus csDMARD induction in early disease (69–72 139) | 5 | Certolizumab pegol versus MTX | TNF |
| Abatacept versus MTX | CD-80/CD-86 | ||
| Infliximab versus MTX | TNF | ||
| Tocilizumab versus MTX | IL-6 receptor | ||
| Switching between bDMARDs (4 67 68) | 3 | Certolizumab pegol versus adalimumab | TNF |
| Abatacept; rituximab; tocilizumab versus adalimumab; certolizumab; infliximab; golimumab; etanercept | CD-80/CD-86; CD-20; IL-6 receptor versus TNF | ||
| Sarilumab | IL-6 receptor | ||
| Tapering of bDMARDs/tsDMARDs or csDMARDs (107–124 126–128 140–145) | 25 | Abatacept | CD-80/CD-86 |
| Tocilizumab | IL-6 receptor | ||
| Adalimumab; certolizumab pegol; etanercept; infliximab; | TNF | ||
| csDMARDs | |||
| Glucocorticoids | |||
| Strategic studies (6 146) | 2 | ||
| tsDMARDs±csDMARDs versus placebo (73–100 125 147–152) | 32 | Baricitinib | JAK 1/2 |
| Decernotinib | JAK 3 | ||
| Filgotinib | JAK 1 | ||
| GS-9876 | SYK | ||
| Peficitinib | JAK 1 | ||
| Tofacitinib | JAK 1/3 | ||
| Upadacitinib | JAK 1 | ||
| tsDMARDs±csDMARDs versus bDMARDs±csDMARDs (101–106) | 5 | Baricitinib versus adalimumab | JAK 1/2 versus TNF |
| Tofacitinib versus adalimumab | JAK 1/3 versus TNF | ||
| Upadacitinib versus adalimumab | JAK 1 versus TNF | ||
| bsDMARDs versus boDMARDs (30–34 36–55) | 24 | Adalimumab: ABP 501, AdaliRel, BI 695501, CinnoRA, FKB327, GP2017, PF-06410293, SB5, ZRC 3197 | TNF |
| Etanercept: CHS-0214, GP2015, HD203, LBEC0101 | TNF | ||
| Infliximab: BCD-055, CT-P13, NI-071, PF-06438179/GP1111, SB2 | TNF | ||
| Rituximab: BCD-020, CT-P10, DRL-RI, GP2013 | CD-20 | ||
| Switching between bsDMARDs and boDMARDs (32 35 56–61 153) | 6 | Adalimumab: SB5 | TNF |
| Etanercept: GP2015, CHS-0214, LBEC0101 | TNF | ||
| Infliximab: SB2, CT-P13 | TNF |
*Studies answering multiple research questions account for mismatch between included articles/abstracts and numbers in this table. References of manuscripts published after the SLRs data cut, with the respective conference abstracts included before, are shown, but were not counted.
bDMARD, biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; boDMARD, biooriginator disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; bsDMARD, biosimilar disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; CD, cluster of differentiation; csDMARD, conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; GM-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; IL, interleukin; JAK, Janus kinase; SYK, spleen tyrosine kinase; TNF, tumour necrosis factor; tsDMARD, targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.