Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing form of interstitial pneumonia, with poor survival rates of nearly 50% at 3 years.

Metanalysis of nine clinical trials and 972 lupus patients examined the comparative efficacy of tacrolimus, mycophenolate (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) as induction therapy for lupus nephritis.

Several news articles have addressed the rising concern by patients and physicians over the cost of newer drugs. This issue comes to a head as more than 100 oncologists from top cancer hospitals around the U.S.

Several drugs continue to be in short supply, posing significant problems for patients. Foremost on this list is leflunomide (Arava) which is backordered for both 10 mg and 20 mg tablets.  

Leflunomide Shortage

Karmacharya and colleages have reviewed 33 cases of rituximab-induced serum sickness. Half of these patients had the classic triad of SS fever, rash, and arthralgia and a self-limiting course. The time to onset after infusion was greater with the first dose of rituximab c

At EULAR 2015, Brouwer and colleagues reported on their cohort of 162 evaluable pregnancies in 239 Dutch women enrolled during 2002-2010 in the nationwide Pregnancy-Induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis (PARA) study – a large prospective cohort of pregnant RA patients.

Behcet's disease is difficult to manage, especially if the goal is to avoid corticosteroids.

Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis affecting adults and, probably, one of the most underestimated.

Several studies have suggested that lithium chloride exhibits significant chondroprotective effects on cartilage degradation (in animal models) in response to inflammatory cytokines.

The British Medical Journal reports that the combined use of NSAIDs and anti-depressants were associate with higher rates of intracranial bleeding within 30 days of initiation (Citation source http://buff.ly/1gF3uEJ).

FDA Scours the Internet for Safety Signals. A Bloomberg News report shows how the FDA is using Google or Yahoo keyword searches to identify new safety signals or drug interactions, often more than a year before they were brought to light by the FDA based on prior methodologies de

The MedWatch June 2015 safety labeling changes were published yesterday, and updated the warnings for Xeljanz (tofacitinib). "The risk of herpes zoster is increased in patients treated with Xeljanz and appears to be higher in patients treated with Xeljanz in Japan."

Committees at academic institutions that make decisions on research and clinical trials may be conflicted, as nearly one-third of IRB members have some ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Researchers have determined that adults aged 50 and above were more likely to acquire pain relievers through more than one doctor, whereas younger individuals were more likely to acquire them from friends, relatives or drug dealers.

FDA announced yesterday they would strengthen warnings  stating that non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke. This applies to both prescription and OTC NSAIDs.

Yesterday Health Canada announced it “is taking additional steps to minimize the risk of liver damage and improve acetaminophen safety,” citing the findings of a government review that underscored the possibility of accidental overdose.

Demyelinating disorders are an uncommon complication of TNF inhibition and have been described with all TNF inhibitors but also with other biologics. 

In a 2 year follow-up of the DESIR cohort of patients with early inflammatory back pain (627 patients), TNF inhibitor use was associated with a significantly greater decrease in the median NSAID intake (from 54.9 to 1.9 in TNFi pts versus from 41.9 to 22.3 in non-TNFi pts, p0.05).

615 adults with active PsA were randomized to ustekinumab (45mg group or 90mg group) or placebo with crossover at 24 weeks.

Using drug survival as a global measure of a drug's effectiveness, safety and tolerability, UK investigators used a national pharmacovigilance cohort (British Association of Dermatologists Biologic Interventions Register) to compare survival rates of the first biologic used in 3,523 biologic-naiv