Abstract

To investigate the prevalence of tocilizumab off-label prescribing in outpatient department of a tertiary hospital and evaluate the rationality of these off-label prescriptions by looking through scientific evidences. Setting Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing in China. Method Retrieving one year tocilizumab related prescriptions from hospital electronic information system. The standard of evaluating the on-label or off-label prescription according to whether the indication approved by China. Logistic regression was applied to explore predictive variables. All of the literature source acquired from Up-To-Date, Micromedex database, PubMed, Embase, and clinical guidelines. Main outcome measure The percentage of off-label use, influence factors identified by logistic regression, the rationality of off-label use. Conclusion according to our analysis, the majority of off-label indications of tocilizumab in our hospital have evidence support. But some indications were supported by low grade scientific evidence, more studies are required to confirm the clinical values. For the indication that has no evidence support, we suggest the administration should strength supervision.