NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Ixekizumab improves signs and symptoms in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (ankylosing spondylitis), according to results from the COAST-W study. “Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic and debilitating disease, and I have a large number of patients who have failed TNF inhibitors,” says Dr. Atul Deodhar from Oregon Health and Science University, Portland….
The FDA has approved subcutaneous tocilizumab for treating active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis in pediatric patients as young as 2 years old…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration is seeking to lower prescription drug prices by determining the price the government’s Medicare program pays for some medications based on the lower prices paid in other countries. Trump said the move takes aim at what he characterized as “global freeloading” on prescription drugs. “The…
ZURICH (Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected Novartis’s bid to repurpose a drug now approved for rare inflammatory diseases to be used in a group of heart attack survivors, according to the Swiss drugmaker. The company received an FDA letter turning down its bid to make canakinumab a targeted therapy for those…
Severe infections occurred in 25% of patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) who were treated with rituximab, according to results of an observational study conducted in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Austria. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) prophylaxis, however, reduced the risk of severe infections, the investigators reported in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.1 Andreas…
A patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) comes to your office and needs a medication. You prescribe it, and the patient’s insurance plan covers it. The patient begins the medication and slowly but surely feels better. Prescribing drugs for a patient should be this simple but rarely is, thanks to the high cost of drugs and…