Yesterday the FDA approved secukinumab (Cosentyx) for the treatment of patients with active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA). There are now three agents that are FDA approved for nr-axSpA: certolizumab, ixekizumab and now, secukinumab. 

The high potency calcineurin inhibitor voclosporin plus standard of care was superior to standard of care alone in a phase III study of lupus nephritis known as AURORA.

Yesterday, the FDA approved canakinumab (Ilaris) as treatment for adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), the first ever FDA approved drug for AOSD.

Canakinumab, an interleukin-1 inhibitor, was FDA approved in 2013 for use children (aged 2 years and older) with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and has since been approved for use in other periodic fever disorders (e.g., FMF, CAPS, TRAPS, Hyper IgD syndrome).

Preliminary results released today shows dexamethasone (DEX), given to hospitalized, severly ill, COVID-19 patients, is capable of reducing mortality rates by one-third, with researchers calling this a “major breakthrough” in coronavirus management.

The results stem from a UK trial, called the RECOVERY trial, launched in March 2020, compared outcomes of around 2100 patients who were randomly assigned to DEX treatment compared with 4,300 patients not on DEX. 

The prevalence of atherosclerotic vascular events among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) today is considerably lower than in the past, analysis of multicenter data found.

Among patients enrolled in an inception cohort from 1999 to 2017, only 3.6% of patients had an atherosclerotic vascular event, at a rate of 4.6 per 1,000 patient-years, according to Murray B. Urowitz, MD, of the University of Toronto in Canada, and colleagues.

For patients with gout exacerbations while on pegloticase (Krystexxa), adding methotrexate may help reduce uric acid levels, researchers suggested at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) virtual meeting.

In a small open-label study of 14 patients experiencing acute gout attacks, use of the pegloticase/methotrexate combination reduced uric acid levels to near undetectable levels in 11 patients, reported John Botson, MD, medical director of Orthopedic Physicians Alaska in Anchorage. He noted that this was far below the 5 mg/dL level recognized as the threshold for development of inflammation that causes gout attacks.

In no particular order, these are my top 5 presentations from this year's EULAR 2020 meeting. Congratulations to EULAR for pulling off the educational coup of the year by transforming their world class gigantic Frankfurt meeting into a worldwide virtual meeting in less than 8 weeks – KUDOS!

In this week's podcast, Drs. Artie Kavanaugh and Jack Cush present highlights from the virtual EULAR2020 meeting held June 3-6, 2020. Featured reports include the SELECT-CHOICE study, the EXCEED trial, Avacopan in AAV, BeST mortality outcomes, BLISS-LN study, biosimilars and tofa in systemic sclerosis.

These were my top abstracts from Thursday, 4th of June at EULAR 2020:

These were my top abstracts from Thursday, 4th of June at EULAR 2020:

For a disease that has been recognized since the days of Hippocrates, we are finally making some progress towards understanding systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and how to tame the wolf.  Listed below are the top 5 studies and their summaries presented at the recent EULAR e-Congress confer

Flares in ANCA-associated vasculitis are difficult to predict, but serum calprotectin may help predict relapse and renal failure, according to data presented at the EULAR 2020 virtual meeting this week.

These were my top abstracts from Thursday, 4th of June at EULAR 2020.

Every time a big scientific meeting ends I ask myself a question: how is it going to affect the way I treat my patients? This year the question pertains to management of axial spondyloarthropathies and psoriatic arthritis.