Clinical features and outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases treated with biological and synthetic targeted therapies

From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 4.7 million cases have been detected in the world, Spain being one of the countries hardest hit by the SARS-CoV-2.1 The role of the immune system and immunomodulatory therapies in the evolution of this infection is still controversial.2 The study of patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthropathies (SpA) or systemic lupus erythematosus, treated with immunomodulatory therapies is essential to understand the prognosis of COVID-19 in this specific population and to the management of these patients.\n\nBIOBADASER is a multicentre prospective observational registry promoted by the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER) and supported by the Spanish Agency of Drugs and Medical Devices. It is aimed at assessing safety in patients with RMDs starting treatment with any biological (bDMARD) or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (tsDMARD). More than 6600 patients are prospectively followed up in BIOBADASER 3.0.\n\nThis report describes the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 in BIOBADASER. We have identified 41 patients with RMDs treated with bDMARD and …