thus hard to estimate in a cohort model. This could be a
clinical research priority in the future.
This economic evaluation revealed that the ICURs of anti-
TNF-α drugs were not satisfactory in treating patients with
moderate-to-severe refractory UC in a relatively short
treatment period. Future research could be aimed at the
long-term clinical benefits of these drugs, especially adalimumab
for patients intolerant or unresponsive to infliximab
treatment.
Competing interests
FX, NA, and DR disclosed no conflicts of interest. GB
received funding from Eli Lilly Canada Inc. and Glaxo-
SmithKline Inc. for consulting. KG received funding
grants from Abbott Laboratories Ltd. for a speaking
engagement. RG was advisory board member to Janssen-
Ortho Inc. and Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. and consultant for
Eli Lilly Canada IncAuthors' contributions
FX participated in the conception and design of the
review, acquired the data, performed the analysis and
interpretation of the data and drafted the article. GB participated
in the conception and design of the review and
revised the article for critically important intellectual content.
NA participated in acquiring the data and revised the
article for critically important intellectual content. KG participated
in acquiring the data and revised the article for
critically important intellectual content. DR participated
in acquiring the data and revised the article for critically
important intellectual content. RG participated in the
conception and design of the review and revised the article
for critically important intellectual content. All authors
read and approved the final manuscript.