New drug aids fight against rheumatoid arthritis

A new drug which has been found to have the capabilities of helping thousands of people with rheumatoid arthritis has been given the seal of approval from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

RoActemra (tocilzumab) will now be used on people with the early stages of the disease and it is estimated that up to 24,000 people in England and Wales could benefit.

In the region of 1,200 people who are in the later stages of rheumatoid arthritis have already been given access to the treatment, but now it will be made available to those with less progressive forms of the disorder who have not responded to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

Figures released by the pharmaceutical firm Roche show that clinical trials using the drug increased the rate of remission in patients by six times.

John Isaacs, professor of clinical rheumatology at the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, said: "Rheumatoid arthritis is an unrelenting disease and it is vital that patients have options available to them when they are no longer responding to, or can no longer tolerate, their current treatment."

Figures from the NHS show that 400,000 people (around 2,500 of which are children) suffer from rheumatoid arthritis in the UK.

Most commonly it occurs in people between the ages of 40 and 70 and progresses to the stage that more than 50 per cent of those affected are unable to work with ten years of their first symptoms.

Ailsa Bosworth, chief executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, said: "We are delighted with NICE’s decision, as there are so many patients with rheumatoid arthritis in need of tighter disease management.

"This decision is most welcome as it is vital that patients have effective options available as soon as one treatment approach fails."