MedDRA preferred term · the treatment did not work

Treatment failure: adverse event reports recording this term

80,988 reports to FDA record it, 2004–2026; 0.4% of the database.

Read first · FDA's statement on these data

Adverse event reports submitted to FDA do not undergo extensive validation or verification. Therefore, a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report. While a suspected relationship may exist, it is not medically validated and should not be the sole source of information for clinical decision making or other assumptions about the safety or efficacy of a product. Additionally, it is important to remember that adverse event reports represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product. Common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product. openFDA, FDA

FDA adds: "There is no certainty that the reported event (adverse event or medication error) was actually due to the product. FDA does not require that a causal relationship between a product and event be proven, and reports do not always contain enough detail to properly evaluate an event." The information in these reports "cannot be used to estimate the incidence of these events."

Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. While we make every effort to ensure that data is accurate, you should assume all results are unvalidated.

Not medical advice. This site counts what was reported to FDA. Questions about a medicine or device belong with a pharmacist or clinician.

80,988
reports recording the term: 0.4% of all reports; 6,273
reports, 12 months to June 2026: 6,461 in the 12 months before; 51.9%
marked serious by the reporter: 57.4% across all reports; 6.2%
record death among outcomes, as reported: 9.1% across all reports

"Treatment failure" (in plain words, the treatment did not work) is a MedDRA preferred term recorded in 80,988 adverse event reports received by FDA, 0.4% of the database, from May 2004 to June 2026. The term is chosen by whoever codes the report to match what the reporter described.

6,273 reports recorded it in the 12 months to June 2026, close to the 6,461 of the 12 months before. FDA releases FAERS data quarterly, so the newest months are incomplete and grow in later releases. Of reports recording this term, 51.9% are marked serious, 6.2% include death among the outcomes and 12.6% include hospitalisation, as reported.

The drugs listed most often as suspect products in those reports are Methotrexate, Enbrel and Orencia. That order mostly follows how many reports each drug has overall; the table also gives the term's share within each drug's own reports. FDA states that "a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report" and that for any given report "there is no certainty that a suspected drug caused the event."

Reports by month, five years

FDA releases FAERS data quarterly, so the newest months are incomplete and grow in later releases.

Drugs listed as suspect products in these reports

Drug	Class	Reports with this term	Share of the drug's own reports
Methotrexate	Folate analog metabolic inhibitor	12,660	6.1%
Enbrel	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	12,065	2.1%
Orencia	Selective T cell costimulation modulator	9,390	8.6%
Humira	—	9,072	1.4%
Actemra	Interleukin-6 receptor antagonist	8,700	10.9%
Rituximab	CD20-directed cytolytic antibody	8,241	5.3%
Sulfasalazine	Aminosalicylate	7,645	18.8%
Remicade	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	7,002	4.5%
Prednisone	Corticosteroid	6,599	3.6%
Arava	Antirheumatic agent	6,112	17.9%
Leflunomide	Antirheumatic agent	5,870	15.9%
Latanoprost	Prostaglandin analog	5,767	46.6%
Simponi	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	5,582	7.9%
Cimzia	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	5,423	6.2%
Hydroxychloroquine	Antimalarial	5,251	13%
Hydroxychloroquine sulfate	Antimalarial	5,201	21.7%
Xeljanz	Janus kinase inhibitor	4,677	3%
Folic acid	Vitamin B12	3,873	16.1%
Infliximab	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	3,686	7%
Plaquenil	Antimalarial	3,577	16.6%
Adalimumab	Tumor necrosis factor blocker	3,560	9%
Cosentyx	Interleukin-17A antagonist	3,523	2.3%
Desoximetasone	Corticosteroid	3,503	28.7%
Pataday	—	3,381	68.4%
Diclofenac sodium	Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug	3,340	6.4%

Drugs with a page on this site, ordered by the number of their reports recording this term. The last column is the term's share within that drug's own reports, against 0.4% across the whole database. FDA states that adverse event reports "represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product", that "common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product", and that the data "by themselves are not an indicator of the safety profile of the drug or biologic."

By pharmacologic class

Class	Reports with this term	Share of class reports	Median drug in class
Tumor necrosis factor blocker	42,369	4%	4.5%
Corticosteroid	26,908	3.3%	0.6%
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug	16,159	2.9%	0%
Folate analog metabolic inhibitor	15,872	5.1%	0.3%
Antimalarial	14,069	15.2%	2%
Interleukin-6 receptor antagonist	13,557	10.1%	10.9%
Antirheumatic agent	11,982	16.8%	16.9%
Prostaglandin analog	10,938	21.4%	0.6%
CD20-directed cytolytic antibody	10,744	3.4%	0.2%
Histamine-1 receptor antagonist	9,977	7.4%	0.4%

Classes ordered by count. Class shares follow the class's overall report volume as much as anything else.

Patients in these reports

Patient age

Under 20.5%419

2 to 111.4%1,098

12 to 171.4%1,131

18 to 4412.8%10,342

45 to 6415.3%12,423

65 to 745.8%4,729

75 and over3.1%2,526

Age not given59.7%48,320

Patient sex

Female50.9%41,255

Male28.7%23,253

Not given20.3%16,480

Grey bar: all 20,646,523 reports in the database. 60.6% of these reports give the United States as the country.

Questions about "Treatment failure"

What does "Treatment failure" mean in an adverse event report?

In plain language: the treatment did not work. It is a MedDRA preferred term, the dictionary FDA uses to code what a reporter described. The report's own description is not published by openFDA and is not shown here.

How many reports record treatment failure?

80,988 reports through June 2026 (0.4% of all reports), 6,273 of them in the latest 12 months.

Which drugs appear most often in these reports?

Methotrexate (12,660), Enbrel (12,065), Orencia (9,390), Humira (9,072) and Actemra (8,700). Drugs with many reports overall lead almost every term's list. FDA states that adverse event reports "represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product", that "common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product", and that the data "by themselves are not an indicator of the safety profile of the drug or biologic."

Does a drug appearing here mean it was responsible for this reaction?

No. FDA states that "a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report" and that for any given report "there is no certainty that a suspected drug caused the event."

I have this symptom. What should I do?

This site cannot assess anyone. A pharmacist or clinician can; for an emergency, call the local emergency number. Nothing on this page is medical advice.

Where this comes from. Counts are built from the openFDA Drug Adverse Event (FAERS) bulk export released 28 Sep 2026, which holds reports FDA received through 30 Jun 2026. Drug names are as reported, resolved to the brand or generic name on the FDA label where openFDA's harmonisation matched them; classes are the pharmacologic class (EPC) from the label and the National Drug Code Directory of 17 Sep 2026. Terms are pooled across spelling and capitalisation variants of one MedDRA preferred term. No report narrative, lot number, patient detail or reporter identity is published. See the methodology and sources; FDA's record is authoritative, and corrections are handled within five working days.

Drug data (FAERS) through 30 Jun 2026; device data (MAUDE) through 31 Aug 2026. Not medical advice.