Cancer drug found to help arthritis patients

The trial met its primary endpoint of a greater proportion of Rituxan-treated patients achieving an American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20 response at week 24, compared to placebo. The study included patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have had an inadequate response or were intolerant to prior treatment with one or more anti-TNF therapies.

In this study, known as REFLEX, patients who received a single treatment course of two infusions of Rituxan with a stable dose of methotrexate (MTX) displayed a statistically significant improvement in symptoms compared to patients who received placebo and MTX. Further analyses of the data are ongoing and will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical meeting.

A preliminary analysis of the data did not reveal any unexpected safety signals and the reported rate of serious adverse events was comparable across the two treatment arms.

“These are the first phase III Rituxan data to demonstrate clinical improvement in this difficult-to-treat RA patient population,” said Dr Hal Barron, Genentech’s senior vice president of development and chief medical officer. “The findings add to the growing body of evidence that selectively targeting B cells may provide an important new treatment approach for this debilitating disease.”

Roche and Genentech’s shares have both risen over 2% and Biogen Idec stock has risen close to 2% following the announcement.

Rituxan is currently approved in the US for the treatment of relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and has been approved in the European Union under the trade name MabThera.