SpA (short for ‘spondyloarthritis’) is a type of inflammatory arthritis that affects the back, hips, and often other parts of the body. The DESIR cohort is a group of 708 French SpA patients who are responding to follow-up questions about their costs and health. This study used information from DESIR to help understand more about policies around biologic drugs for SpA. Biologic drugs (also called ‘anti-TNF’ therapies) help stop inflammation from SpA, but they are expensive. Around the world, different countries have different policies around which patients should receive biologic drugs as a way to limit costs. This means a SpA patient in one country might receive a biologic drug, but a SpA patient in another country might not. Using information from DESIR, researchers looked at which patients satisfied the criteria to receive biologic drugs in different countries: France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. They used information about patients’ costs and health to try to understand whether the policy in France (where DESIR cohort patients are located) is the best policy for that country, or whether policies in other countries would be better at limiting costs and maximizing health.