All News
Gouts' Increasing Hospitalizations and Poor Management
Numerous studies have shown that gout hospitalizations have increased in the last decade. Also worrisome is a new studiy showing that patients admitted to the hospital are less likely to have received recommended urate-lowering treatment (ULT).
Read Article
EULAR 2017 – Day 2 Highlights
The heat was on at EULAR 2017 for busy presenters and attendees navigating the 104F degree temperatures at the indoor/outdoor IFEMA Convention center in Madrid.
Day 2 (Thursday) were big days for gout, drug safety, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthritis.
Read Article
FDA Approves Abatacept for Pediatric Use
Subcutaneous (SC) abatacept (Orencia) is now available for use in patients 2 years of age and older with moderately to severely active polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic (JIA) according to Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Read Article
Suspending Methotrexate for Influenza Vaccination
Vaccinating our rheumatoid arthritis patients against influenza every year is a safety priorty. However immunosuppressive therapies pose a challenge to vaccine administration as their use can hamper vaccine immunogenicity.
Read Article
FDA Requests Removal of OPANA-ER from the Market
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked Endo International to withdraw Opana ER from the market, stating that benefits no longer outweigh its risks of this long-acting opioid.
Read Article
Debate over Alcohol and Methotrexate Precautions
Drs. Kremer and Weinblatt have responded to a recent Annals of Rheumatic Disease article regarding the hepatic risks of alcohol use with methotrexate (MTX) therapy authored by Humphries et al. (Citation source: http://buff.ly/2r70uuz)
Read Article
Upadacitinib Effective in Rheumatoid Arthritis
AbbVie released the preliminary results of a rheumatoid arthritis trial wherein its Jak inhibitor, upadacitinib, was tested against placebo, and shown to be superior in established RA patients who have failed prior DMARD therapy.
Read Article
Biosimilar Reports – May 2017
Biosimilars continue to command a great deal of research, development and attention given the promise of significant cost savings and potentially wider use for those in need. Biosimilar Reports is an ongoing series dedicated to advances, discussions and developments in biosimilar agents intended for use by rheumatologists.
Read Article
Higher Fracture Risks with Prolonged Bisphosphonate Use in Older Women
The Journal of the American Geriatric Society has reported that older women receiving bisphosphonate therapy for greater than 10-13 years were more likely to suffer from fractures.
Read Article
The RheumNow Week in Review – 2 June 2017
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights from the past week on RheumNow.com.
Read Article
Chondroitin Effective in Knee OA. Or is it?
Reginster and colleagues have reported on the results of the CONCEPT trial showing that osteoarthritis (OA) patients treated 800 mg/day of pharmaceutical-grade chondroitin sulfate (CS) have less VAS pain scores and improved function over 6 months therapy. These results were superior to placebo and equivalent to celecoxib in reducing in symptomatic OA knee pain.
Read Article
Ohio Sues Five Pharma Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Ohio is suing five major drug manufacturers, accusing them of misrepresenting the risks of prescription opioid painkillers that has resulted in the current opioid epidemic.
Read Article
New BSR 2017 Gout Guidelines
The British Society for Rheumatology/British Health Professionals in Rheumatology first published a guideline for the management of gout in 2007. They have just updated and published their new guideline, largely because of new therapies, an increasing incidence of gout, low penetrance of urate lowering therapies, and the inability to achieve a target serum uric acid level.
Read Article
Biologics Before Triple DMARD is Not Cost Effective in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Stepping up to biologic therapy when methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy fails was not shown to be cost effective, compared to first trying triple therapy, in a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Read Article
The RheumNow Week in Review - 26 May 2017
Dr. Jack Cush Reviews highlights from the past week on RheumNow.com:
Read Article
Low Dose Treatment in Ankylosing Spondylitis Still Effective
About one-third of ankylosing spondylitis patients who cut their etanercept (Enbrel) dose in half maintained responses over 4 years, compared with two-thirds who stayed on standard therapy, researchers reported.
Read Article
Ixekizumab Effective in TNF Failure Psoriatic Arthritis - SPIRIT-P2 Trial
Ixekizumab (Taltz) is currently approved for use in plaque psoriasis and is being developed for use in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). New results show IXE to be highly effective at skin and joint outcomes in PsA patients who have failed a TNF inhibitor (TNFi).
Read Article
Anti-IL-5 Success in Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis
The NEJM reports success when using mepolizumab (anti-IL-5 monoclonal antibody) in a 52 week study of patients with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA).
Read Article
Actemra - First FDA Approved Drug for Giant Cell Arteritis
The FDA has approved subcutaneous tocilizumab for use in Giant Cell Arteritis based on the phase III GiACTA study that demonstrated that TCZ with steroids was superior to steroid therapy alone.
Read Article
IL-6 Inhibitor Kevzara Granted FDA Approval for Rheumatoid Arthritis
The FDA has approved sarilumab (Kevzara), a new IL-6 inhibitor co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi's, for use in adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Read Article
