Antibody Drug Eases Arthritis Symptoms

Roche’s monoclonal antibody tocilizumab — Actemra — improves rheumatoid arthritis symptoms better than standard care, says a U.S. study.

In the study presented at the European League Against Rheumatism in Barcelona, Spain, patients receiving tocilizumab — which targets receptors associated with the inflammation cascade that causes rheumatoid arthritis symptoms — significantly reduced clinical signs of the disease.

There is a critical need for new therapies to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis patients, and these results suggest that interleukin-6 inhibition is an encouraging anti-inflammatory mechanism for reducing disease symptoms, said Mark Genovese, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

In the 623-patient study — sponsored by Roche — 58.5 percent of patients receiving the combination of tocilizumab and methotrexate achieved at least a 20-percent improvement in rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, compared with 26.5 percent of patients receiving standard-of-care methotrexate plus placebo after 24 weeks.

The data also showed that 79.5 percent of patients in the tocilizumab plus methotrexate group responded with moderate to good improvements in rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, compared to 34.8 percent for those treated with placebo and methotrexate in the same time period.

The phase 3 trial enrolled patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis who had an inadequate response to methotrexate alone.