The US Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee on Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs voted Wednesday in favor of approving Amgen’s osteoporosis anti-sclerostin drug, romosozumab (Evenity) for use women with postmenopausal osteoporosis.  Reuters reports that the panel voted 16-1 in favor of the monthly injection developed jointly by UCB.

A retrospective analysis of hospitalized patients who also had a gout and pseudogout attack shows that injections of anakinra (interleukin-1 receptor antagonist) were highly effective and safe in nearly three-quarters of patients.   Through a medical records search they found 100 patients and 115 episodes between 2014-2017 who were treated with anakinra for crystal arthritis. 

On January 11, 2019 the FDA convened two advisory panels (the Arthritis Advisory Committee [AAC] and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee [DSaRM]) to consider the cardiovascular safety of febuxostat (Uloric) based on the 2018 “Cardiovascular Safety of Febuxostat and Allopurinol in Patients with Gout and Cardiovascular Morbidities (CARES) study.  The Vote

Tocilizumab (Actemra) was effective for refractory giant cell arteritis (GCA) in real-world practice, although serious infections occurred relatively frequently, Spanish investigators reported.

A JAMA Viewpoint article examines the performance of aging surgeons and notes that the effects of aging affects physicians variably and that physician competency should be based on functional age (and abilities) rather than chronologic age. This argues against a mandatory retirement age for surgeons.