ATLANTA—New drug approvals, new and expanded drug indications, and important safety and other updates relevant for rheumatologists were presented by three physicians from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on Nov. 11 at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting. New JAK Inhibitor Approved for RA On Aug. 16, 2019, the FDA approved upadacitinib (Rinvoq), an…
Last year, the FDA was busy with new biologic and other drug approvals, new and expanded drug indications, and important safety updates relevant to rheumatology…
Two JAK inhibitors, one recently approved by the FDA, have shown improvements in patients with active RA for whom other therapies have proved ineffective…
A 2019 update of the ACR’s previous clinical practice guideline on axial spondyloarthritis is now available online. Lead investigator Michael Ward, MD, shares advice for implementing the guideline updates, including those related to sequencing and tapering biologics, and knowing when to obtain images.
(Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved AbbVie Inc.’s new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a win for the drugmaker seeking to widen its portfolio as its blockbuster flagship therapy Humira (adalimumab) faces competition. The drug, Rinvoq (upadacitinib), is a JAK inhibitor. It is set to compete with Pfizer Inc.’s Xeljanz (tofacitinib)…
In a four-part clinical trial program, researchers are assessing the safety and efficacy of otilimab with placebo in RA patients, along side conventional treatments, such as tofacitinib, and DMARDs…
Historically, the early approach for treating interstitial lung disease (ILD) due to systemic sclerosis (SSc) involved immunosuppressant therapy, primarily with cytotoxic agents.1 Glucocorticoids in combination with another immunosuppressant agent, such as oral azathioprine or cyclophosphamide, were often used to treat patients with severe, progressive SSc-ILD.2 However, direct evidence to support this therapeutic approach was lacking…
Over the past few years, biosimilars and other new drugs have been introduced to treat rheumatic illnesses. Some of the conditions we treat have numerous drug options, others have few or only off-label options. This series, “Rheumatology Drugs at a Glance,” provides streamlined information on the administration of biologic, biosimilar and small molecule inhibitor drugs…
A recent study details the autoantibodies of patients with myositis, confirming most patients carry these antibodies. The results also describe how myositis-specific autoantibodies can be used to identify distinct clinical subsets of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Monotherapy with the JAK1-selective inhibitor upadacitinib is effective in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who have an inadequate response to methotrexate, according to results from the SELECT-MONOTHERAPY phase 3 trial. As many as two-thirds of patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving methotrexate monotherapy fail to achieve satisfactory disease control. Oral therapy with upadacitinib…