Drug to prevent rheumatoid arthritis – new trial launches

A drug being tested could bring hope to millions of people at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. Current drugs aim to treat the disease once it has set in, but the new drug – abatacept – could prevent people from developing rheumatoid arthritis in the first place.
Abatacept is already licensed for treating people with established rheumatoid arthritis. It works by reducing the immune system’s attack on normal tissues by interfering with the immune cells (called T lymphocytes) that contribute to the development of rheumatoid arthritis.
Now a research team will test the drug in a large experimental trial over the next two years, involving over two hundred people who are at high-risk of developing the disease. The volunteers will be people who have evidence of an autoimmune response in their blood and joint pains but no joint swelling.
Rheumatoid arthritis currently affects more than 500,000 people in the UK and 1.5 million people in the US, causing great pain and in some cases, disability. There are about 20,000 new cases of rheumatoid arthritis in the UK every year.
Professor Andrew Cope, who is leading the study, comments:
“This is a very exciting study of a therapy that is a logical choice for the very earliest detectable phase of the disease process. This is an important first step towards curing this chronic, disabling disease that affects over half a million adults in the UK.”

Subscribe to Arthritis Digest, the UK’s fastest growing arthritis magazine for all the latest arthritis news, reviews and celebrity interviews. You’ll know what your doctor is talking about, what new drugs are in the pipeline and be up to date on helpful products. Hard copy and digital versions both available. Click here for more information.

Image credit: Andrew Stafford