Rituximab in RA story widely reported in US

[Guest guest]

Rituximab in RA story widely reported in US

Rheumawire

Jun 18, 2004 Zosia Chustecka

New York, NY - The news on rituximab in rheumatoid arthritis earlier

this week, from the phase 2 trial published in the New England Journal

of Medicine and already reported by rheumawire, has been widely

disseminated across the US in local newspapers and other media outlets

and in the UK made the BBC news service.

Many of the outlets ran a story from the Associated Press quoting Dr

Klippel, president of the US Arthritis Foundation, as saying: " This

is opening up a new era of targeted biological therapies for rheumatoid

arthritis. "

Another report, from HealthDay News, carries comments from 2 other

rheumatologists. Dr Leonard Serebro (Ochsner Clinic Foundation Hospital,

New Orleans) said: " I think rituximab is going to be a promising

addition to the treatments we have available for people with rheumatoid

arthritis. " Dr Clifton O Bingham III (Seligman Center for Advanced

Therapeutics at the New York Hospital for Joint Diseases) commented:

" The responses that were seen and the duration of responses, coupled

with the low side effects that were seen, were extremely encouraging. "

" In general, there's a lot of excitement surrounding rituximab for

rheumatoid arthritis, " Bingham said, adding that this approach also has

" tremendous potential for all autoimmune disease. "

Many of the reports also quoted from the press release issue by

University College London, in which Prof , who headed

the phase 2 trial and first reported benefits from rituximab RA in 2000,

comments as follows:

" The study provides clear evidence for the importance of B cells

in rheumatoid arthritis, heralding a major shift in our understanding of

the disease. "

" The cycle underlying autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis

may be similar to a bug in a computer that makes it loop and crash.

B-cell-targeted therapy is like rebooting the computer of your immune

system to sidestep the bug. "

" As is often the case, if you have not removed the bug completely,

the computer system may crash again. This seems to be where we are at

present, possibly because the current treatment does not remove more

than 80% to 90% of the B cells, whereas the ideal treatment would knock

out 100% of the cells. "

" The challenge is to break the cycle once and for all. Many

different B-cell-targeted drugs are now in development, and I am

optimistic that long-term benefit from a single treatment is

achievable. "

" People with arthritis desperately want to be free of painful,

sleepless nights and fatigue and stiffness in the day. They also want to

be free from the burden of long-term drug treatment. This is what we

should be aiming for. "

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org