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Novel Rx

      Does B Cell Depletion Matter?
      Many conventional synthetic, biological, biosimilar, and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs are currently commercially available for the effective treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. However, the "Holy Grail" remains the prevention of its development. During a clinical symposium at EULAR 2024 in Vienna, updates were presented on four prospective intervention trials conducted in patients experiencing joint pain without
      Fertility in the context of RMDs is a daily concern for a lot of rheumatologists and patients. EULAR this year proposed new fertility data, especially in Rheumatoid Arthritis, along with an update of the EULAR points to consider for use of antirheumatic drugs in reproduction, pregnancy and lactation.
      With better endpoint and patient selection strategy over the last 4 years, many new therapies have met their endpoints/shown promising signal in the Phase 2 randomised controlled trials in Sjogren's disease (iscalimab, ianalumab, dazodalibep, and sequential therapy belimumab + rituximab). Since many previous studies have shown the discordance between physician assessment and patient’s symptom burden, there is a glimmer of hope with the efficacy
      Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) for SSc has been proven the most effective treatment strategy with regard to overall and event free survival in selected patients.2 But a key limitation is its toxicity, and new treatment options are needed. Two abstracts presented at the 2024 EULAR congress in Vienna focused on novel approaches.
      I am a big fan of animals and wildlife. Whenever I can, I try to wander outdoors to look for our friends big and small in the animal kingdom. If it rains, as often it does in the UK, the latest edition of Planet Earth will do. So, I was naturally attracted to the presentation by Professor Iain McInnes from the University of Glasgow, oral presentation OP0195 at #EULAR2024 where the link between camels and psoriatic arthritis was made.
      A clinical trial in early axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) demonstrated sustained inactive disease status in over 60% of patients. In axSpA patients with less than 1 year of disease symptoms, male sex, abstinence from smoking and lower BASDAI score at baseline were associated with higher chances of remission. Despite stable inactive disease state successfully induced by medication, drug-free remission in axSpA remains challenging.
      It is almost four years since EULAR published its definition of difficult-to-treat (D2T) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (1). This marked a formal recognition of the group of patients who, despite the advances in pharmacological therapy for RA, remain symptomatic.
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