Drug Discovery Opinion

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a painful, chronic, progressive and disabling auto-immune disease. Newly released data has shown that a novel biologic, Actemra^™ (tocilizumab),  is superior to current standard of care in RA patients. Actemra^™ is a humanised monoclonal antibody to the interleukin-6 receptor that blocks the activity of interleukin-6, a protein that plays a major role in the RA inflammatory process. Actemra^™ is awaiting approval in the United States and Europe.  In Japan, Actemra^™ was approved for the treatment of RA in April 2008.

Other biologics are already used to treat RA and act at different points in the inflammatory process.

Orencia® (abatacept) works by reducing the activation of T-cells, which reduces the activation of other cells in the RA inflammatory process. Humera®(adalimumab), Enbrel®( etanercept) and Remicade® (infliximab) block the action of TNF-alpha, an inflammatory cytokine that leads to tissue damage. Mabthera® (rituximab) targets B cells, one of the key players in the pathogenesis of RA. Kineret® (anakinra) blocks the actions of the cytokine, IL-1.

The biologic medicines are usually prescribed together with the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug, methotrexate.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Related posts:

1. Beating Off the Attack in RA Although the exact causes of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are unknown, tissue damage is mediated, at least in...
2. New Trigger for RA Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, typically progressive, autoimmune disease that primarily affects the joints although it can damage other...
3. New Treatment for Dupuytren’s Contracture Dupuytren’s disease, or Dupuytren’s contracture, is a deformity of one or more fingers caused by shortening, thickening and fibrosis of...
4. HCV NS5A Inhibitor Shows Early Promise in Clinic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of liver disease and the current ‘standard of care’ treatment, a combination...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

 Email This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.