From the Popular Press: What Your Patients are Reading:

Teams of researchers in Austria and Japan recently completed studies on the effectiveness of the drug tocilizumab in adult and child rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The adult patient study, which was funded by F. Hoffman-La Roche and Chugai Pharmaceuticals—the two pharmaceutical companies that are jointly developing tocilizumab—found the drug to be a more effective agent over placebo for relieving the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. All patients enrolled in the study continued to take the standard anti-arthritis drug methotrexate in addition to either tocilizumab or placebo. After 24 weeks, 59% of RA patients taking the maximum dose of tocilizumab had a 20% or greater improvement of RA symptoms, while only 26% of patients taking a placebo experienced an equal degree of improvement. Although this study shows that tocilizumab is a better treatment than nothing (placebo), it does not show the drug’s effectiveness in comparison to other available treatment options. Side effects of tocilizumab noted in the trial include a raising of patients’ cholesterol. Japanese researchers completed a trial of tocilizumab in children ages 2 to 19 with systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis. None of the children enrolled in the study had responded to standard arthritis treatment. Although side effects included gastrointestinal bleeding, bronchitis, and gastroenteritis, the team of researchers reported that tocilizumab showed a favorable risk-benefit profile, and may offer an effective new line of treatment in pediatric patients not responding to other drugs. The Japanese study was funded by Chugai Pharmaceuticals.

Read the full text of the article on healthday.com