OBJECTIVES: Estimate/compare employability-adjusted-life-years (EALYs) over time for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with golimumab (GLM)+methotrexate (MTX) vs. placebo+MTX in the GO-FORWARD study. METHODS: GO-FORWARD is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of adults with active RA (≥4 tender and 4 swollen joints) and inadequate response to MTX. This analysis included patients <65yrs old who received placebo+MTX (MTX) or GLM (50 or 100mg)+MTX (GLM) q4wks. Self-reported employment status and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) were assessed through 3 years. A patient was 'unemployable' if unemployed and felt unable to work even if a job was available or 'employable' if employed or felt well enough to work if a job was available. Long-term (over a 10-yr period) employability was estimated via logistic regression modeling incorporating age, gender and HAQ. HAQ was derived using progression rates of 0.045/year for MTX group and 0 (base case) to 0.025/year (sensitivity analysis) for GLM group. RESULTS: At baseline, the mean HAQ score was 1.36, and 61.9% and 44.8% of patients <65 years were employable and actually employed, respectively. Average HAQ scores at week 24 were 1.08 and 0.92 for MTX and GLM, respectively. Among patients ‘unemployable’ at baseline, 33% of GLM and 15% of MTX patients became employable at wk24 (p=0.04). GLM-treated patients maintained HAQ improvement through wk160 (mean score=0.88). In logistic regression modeling, for patients with a mean age of 50 years, expected EALYs were 5.92 and 7.15 for female and male GLM-treated patients, compared with 4.96 and 6.28 for female and male MTX-treated patients, an increase of 0.96 (19.2%) and 0.87 (13.8%) EALYs in GLM-treated females and males. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated improvements of 0.81 (16.4%) and 0.74 (11.8%) ELAYs in male and female GLM-treated patients relative to MTX-treated patients.  CONCLUSIONS: Results of EALY analysis indicated GLM+MTX-treated RA patients can realize improvement in employability over time.