Risk-Benefit of IBD Drugs: A Physicians and Patients Survey

Background: Treatment choices for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are based on the balance between risks and benefits. Our AI was to compare the perspectives of patients and physicians in evaluating the risks and benefits before initiating therapy for IBD. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted between March and August 2022. All patients with confirmed IBD and all physicians who attended an IBDscope webinar were invited to participate. Results: In total, 367 patients and 146 physicians participated. For most patients (71.4%) and physicians (89.0%), efficacy and safety were equally important. Clinical improvement and clinical remission were the most relevant outcomes for patients (90.9 and 88.4), while clinical remission and endoscopic remission were for physicians (90.0 and 87.6). The main factors in the benefit-risk assessment were quality of life (95.1%), disease activity (87.5%), and presence of comorbidities (84.5%) for patients, and presence of comorbidities (99.3%), disease activity (97.9%), and prior failure to biologics/small molecules (96.6%) for physicians. Based on patients’ and physicians’ opinions, the risk of serious infections, malignancies, cardiovascular events, death, relapse, all infections, surgery, and hospitalization should be included in the benefit-risk assessment. Conclusion: Physicians and patients have different priorities in evaluating the benefit-risk balance of a new therapy.