TARA study: a new perspective on tapering drugs in RA.

We read with great interest the article on ‘Gradual tapering TNF inhibitors vs conventional synthetic DMARDs after achieving controlled disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: first-year results of the randomised controlled TARA study’1by van Mulligen et al . This was the first head-to-head comparison between two tapering strategies—biological versus conventional in rheumatoid arthritis. The final results favour tapering tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFis) before conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs). However, certain points need clarifications. First, many patients in the …