New drug may halt progression of rheumatoid arthritis

Rituximab, marketed as MabThera, was originally developed to treat leukaemia, and targets the specialised white blood cells that play a key role in the immune response that causes rheumatoid arthritis.

The new trial findings show that administering rituximab early, alongside methotrexate, can virtually stop rheumatoid arthritis in its tracks.

A total of 755 patients took part in the ‘Image’ trial, led by Professor Paul-Peter Tak from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. All subjects were recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and had generally suffered the disease for less than a year. They were given either methotrexate on its own, or methotrexate together with rituximab.

After a year of treatment, almost three times as many patients on the combination therapy had experienced a reduction in symptoms pronounced enough to meet the criteria for remission than those on methotrexate alone (30.5% compared with 12.5%).

The findings were presented last week at the annual meeting of the European League Against Rheumatism (Eular) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rheumatoid arthritis affects 500,000 people in the UK, and occurs when the body’s immune system attacks its own joints. The direct and indirect cost is estimated at between £3.8 to £4.75 billion a year, largely due to lost work.

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