ACR 2020 (aka ACR Convergence) is just around the corner, with the opening ceremonies and lecture starting Thursday, November 5th; followed by the full meeting beginning the next morning, Friday November 6th. 

Dr Jack Cush overviews the RheumNow commitment, upcoming bonus coverage of ACR20 and the good news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com

While there have been several promising new agents for systemic sclerosis, many have failed - with all noting the difficulties in appropriate outcomes and endpoints for clinical trials. With this in mind, the FDA was interested in hearing patients’ perspectives on systemic sclerosis and new drug development, and held a virtual meeting on 10/13/20.

The DISCOVER‐2 trial has shown that guselkumab, an interleukin‐23p19 was shown to be safe and effective in biologic‐naïve psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients in a one year study.

JAMA Internal Medicine has published a review showing that most currently approved therapies for fibromyalgia (FM) do not have high-quality evidence to support their use; with some reducing pain or improving quality of life (QOL) in the short term, but overall effect size is not impressive.

Vedolizumab (Entyvio) was superior to infliximab (Remicade) for treating immune-mediated diarrhea and colitis (IMDC), a researcher reported.

A full read review of immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy is portrayed as a distinct subtype of inflammatory myopathies first described in 2004.

A new short‐term follow‐up study has shown no significant difference in outcomes and quality measures in patients with RA who were managed by telemedicine (compared to usual in-person care).

Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) "Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee" conve

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports, survey results and "Back Talk" questions from Rheums.

The FDA has approved Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir for treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19, making it the first and only drug approved for the disease in the United States.

A number of recently published clinical trials are further defining the efficacy and outcomes of tocilizumab or remdesivir in treating SARs-CoV-2 infection.

Remdesivir

In a recent study of patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, the initiation of a biologic treatment or switching to another biologic was associated with an increased likelihood of the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics, reported Petros P. Sfikakis, MD, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and colleagues in RMD Open: Rheumatic & Musculoskeletal Diseases.