Is there any experience of using sarilumab instead of tocilizumab for steroid sparing effect in GCA during national tocilizumab shortage?

This is certainly a very good question, but unfortunately, we don't have an answer. The sarilumab GCA and PMR trials were unfortunately terminated due to the pandemic. I've heard of anecdotal experiences of the use of sarilumab but haven't used it myself (not sure if insurances would approve). Both sarilumab and tocilizumab are antibodies against IL-6R so one would expect sarilumab to work but again, there is no data.

I agree that the tocilizumab shortage is challenging and navigating this is difficult and requires a close conversation with the patient. I have been either slowing on prednisone tapers +/- temporarily switching doses to every other week if backlog on refills (not ideal, we know from GIACTA weekly dosing resulted in better dise...