Published guidelines on lupus management urge that female patients plan and prepare carefully for pregnancy, and use contraceptives when it's not intended -- but these recommendations are only rarely followed, a registry study suggested.

The American College of Rheumatology submitted comments to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration supporting their recent proposal to update the approval process for biosimilars’ interchangeability status by repealing the requirement for switching studies while also encouraging the FDA to continue monitoring the downstream effects of this policy to ensure transparency for patients and prescribing providers.

Dr. Jack Cush picks highlight reports from the past week on RheumNow.com, with reports on the challenge of lupus nephritis, perplexing skin issues, you don't know JAK (about Tyk) and the value of a good family history.

Could disease control in active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients be improved by the sequential use of subcutaneous belimumab (BEL) and intravenous rituximab (RTX)? A double blind trial has shown that sequential BEL and RTX was not superior to BEL alone in SLE.