A new drug has achieved promising results in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, according to study

In a clinical phase-3-study, an international research cooperation of MedUni Vienna and Stanford University has achieved promising success with the drug baricitinib for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with participants exhibiting significantly less symptoms of the disorder.

The study, which was published in New England Journal of Medicine, and was sponsored by the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, was conducted over 24 weeks with 527 people taking part. All participants had previously undergone a number of conventional treatment therapies without success, including one or several biologic therapies.

During the study, participants were divided into three groups, one with a daily dosage of 2mg of baricitinib, one with 4mg of baricitinib and a control group taking placebos. The results of the study found that participants who received baricitinib exhibited significant improvements of their symptoms, suffering less pain and joint swelling and their composite measures of disease activity improved extensively.

Those participants with the 4mg dose showed even better results than those with the 2mg dose. The adverse event rates were comparable to those known of biological therapies.

“With baricitinib, we will have a drug that works even if the currently employed medications are not sufficiently effective”, explains study author Joseph Smolen, manager of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine III of MedUni Vienna in AKH Vienna. “Despite the very long disease duration and the refractory nature of the disease based on the lack of success with a series of other established therapies, almost 10 % of the patients went into full remission, i.e. a cure-like state on drug, within six months, and almost half of the patients demonstrated significant improvement of in disease activity and physical functioning. All this may constitute a new basis for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that could become available in the near future.”

And there is yet another advantage for the affected people, explains Smolen. “The medication is taken orally once a day and does not have to be administered intravenously or subcutaneously with a needle, unlike other medication. This is significantly more comfortable for the affected people.”

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