Andy

[Guest guest]

Hello again Group

I hope you don't mind if I answer all of you who responded to my request in

one post rather than individually. I really appreciate your concern and the

information you supplied. I am grateful to you all.

One of the " themes " that emerged from your posts is that a number of you are

receiving good results from Kineret either alone or in combination with

another drug. This is not a drug that Andy has tried. Kineret is also one of

two that I have been investigating.

Most of you who are using this drug already know this, but for those of you

who don't, Kineret acts by blocking the biological effects of the chemical

messenger, Interleukin-1 (IL-1). IL-1 is a protein that is produced by many

cells in the body however, it is found in increased amounts within joints

that are inflamed by rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, IL-1 promotes the

inflammation and destruction of cartilage and bone in rheumatoid arthritis.

My wife's brother-in-law works for Roche here in Switzerland where I live

and his company has a new DMARD called Actemra. It is not on the market in

the U.S. yet, but has been approved in Japan already. It is also a cytokine

blocker but acts on interleukin-6 (IL-6) which is also over-produced in the

joints of RA patients.

It is now in a multinational phase III, the first outside of Japan where it

has already been approved. The data presented at the EULAR2 meeting in

Barcelona, Spain, showed that patients who received Actemra in combination

with methotrexate achieved rapid and significant improvement in their signs

and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis when compared to patients receiving

methotrexate alone.

In this 24-week study, four times the number of patients in the Actemra

group experienced 50% improvement in disease symptoms (ACR503 response)

compared to the control group (44% vs 11%). More than ten times the number

of Actemra patients achieved 70% improvement in disease signs and symptoms

(ACR70 response) compared to the control group (22.0% vs 2.0%). In addition,

28% of patients achieved the ultimate goal of remission4 in the Actemra

group vs only 1% of patients in the control group.

So, the bottom line is that it looks very promising. I tried to get Andy in

the Phase III trials that are now going on, but the number of joint

replacements he has had precludes him from being considered. However, I am

working with his rheumatologist to get him into a " compassionate use "

program whereby he could begin to take the drug immediately.

The information you provided me will be helpful in persuading the

rheumatologist to explore the use of these cytokine blockers, whether it be

Kineret or Actemra. For that, I thank all of you.

For those of you who asked, Andy lives in the Washington DC area of land

and therefore he is restricted to about a 50 mile radius for on-going

treatment. Fortunately, there are some great institutions there, including

s Hopkins and University of land, as well as others. Living in

Switzerland, I don't get to see him as often as I like, but I do travel to

the States about twice a year.

Thanks again for your help. Oh, anticipating one of your questions: Actemra

won't be approved until sometime later next year.

Regards