Results from the DANCER study presented today revealed that MabThera significantly improves symptoms in heavily treated patients who are affected by moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a painful and debilitating disease of the joints.
MabThera, a potential first-in-class targeted B cell therapy for RA, provided relief to almost twice as many patients as compared to placebo. An even more profound difference was noted between the MabThera and placebo groups at the hard-to-achieve goals of 50% or 70% improvement in symptoms.
In this study, a single treatment course of just two doses of MabThera given two weeks apart provided patients with significant symptom relief. These excellent effects support the data from earlier studies where symptom relief was maintained for at least six months. In addition, MabThera's unique dosing regimen offered patients a high level of convenience, helping them to better cope with this disabling disease.
Professor Paul Emery, University of Leeds, UK, one of the lead investigators commented: "These data are significant because they confirm the ability of MabThera to provide substantial relief of symptoms following just a short course of therapy. The results again demonstrate the benefits of a novel way of treating RA by targeting B cells and show MabThera to be effective in a broad rheumatoid arthritis population, including those who have received previous biologic therapy."
MabThera has also recently proven beneficial in an ongoing pivotal Phase III trial, REFLEX, in patients with the most difficult-to-treat RA who had an inadequate response or were intolerant to prior treatment with anti-TNF alpha therapy. Results from this study will be presented at a medical meeting later in the year.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease characterised by inflammation which leads to painful, stiff and swollen joints. Current treatments include disease-modifying drugs (DMARDS) and biologic therapy such as the anti-TNF alpha (tumour necrosis factor) drugs.