OBJECTIVES: To describe the current medical management of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients in routine practice in a national representative sample of patients, focusing on biological agents (BA) uptake. METHODS: The “Échantillon Généraliste des bénéficiaires” (EGB) database is a 1/97 representative sample of the national claims database covering the whole French population. RA patients were identified as adults (age >18) benefiting from full coverage (“ALD” eligibility criteria) for RA (ICD-10 codes M05-06) from 2010 to 2014. Patients treated with BA were defined as RA patients with at least one claim for at least one BA over the period 2010-2014. First line initiations were identified by the absence of a BA claim during a period of 3 months, followed by at least one BA claim. RESULTS: Over the 4-year period, 46,992 patients (21.8% of the RA population) had a reimbursed BA. Number of RA patients treated with BA increased over time from 31,538 in 2010 to 38,630 in 2014. Over the period, 30,102 patients begun a first line BA, most of them (61%) being initiated with etanercept and adalimumab. In these patients, treatment discontinuation occurred mainly during the first two years, with respectively 64%, 51% and 39% of the patients still undergoing first line treatment at the end of year 1, 2 and 4. Among the 38,630 patients treated in 2014, 47% were still treated with the first line BA, 23% had one switch, 15% had two switches and 15% had three or more. CONCLUSIONS: Claims database is a useful tool to describe the medical management of RA patients and especially the use of medications in real life. Number of BA treated patients increased over time in France, and almost half of the patients remained treated with the 1^st line treatment.