About 30% of patients with psoriasis have psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a complex, multi-faceted, chronic, inflammatory musculoskeletal and skin disease for which the treatment has changed considerably over the past few years.1 Biosimilars and other new drugs have become a therapeutic turning point for many patients suffering from rheumatic illnesses, including PsA. The treatment of PsA…
Amid spirited discussions on drug pricing and insurance challenges, participants got hands-on experience advocating for current bills regulating prior authorization and pharmacy benefit managers.
An overview of the research to date and the ways in which such evidence can be used to guide the treatment of patients was presented at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting in a session titled Optimizing Outcomes in Psoriatic Arthritis: A Domain-Based Strategy. In the years since this presentation, additional research has helped supply greater…
On Oct. 8, ChemoCentryx Inc. announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved avacopan (TAVNEOS), an orally administered selective complement 5a receptor inhibitor, as an adjunctive treatment of adult patients with severe active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis (ANCA-associated vasculitis), specifically granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) (the two main forms…
Eric Dein, MD, shared rheumatology perspectives with five congressional offices on Sept. 28 as part of the virtual Hill Day. Read his hour-by-hour account, including staffer education, legislative requests and prior authorization woes.
New and updated FY22 diagnosis codes became effective for encounters on or after Oct. 1, 2021, including key updates for Sjögren syndrome and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis.
Initial 24-week data from a study of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) show that treatment with guselkumab improved symptoms and resulted in a higher ACR20 response than placebo in patients who could not tolerate, or did not respond to, treatment with a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi).
Mounting evidence indicates that exposure to inorganic dust is a risk factor for the development of autoimmune diseases. According to a recent study, dust exposure during military service in dusty environments represents an occupational and environmental risk and was associated with a 10% increased risk of developing RA.
(Reuters Health)—Adults 50 years and older who take tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi’s) for a range of inflammatory disorders can receive effective protection from shingles with a live varicella zoster vaccine, a clinical trial suggests.1 Researchers randomized 617 participants receiving TNFi’s in a 1:1 ratio to receive either the Zostavax live varicella zoster vaccine or…
Reuters)—Severe COVID-19 may trick the immune system into producing autoantibodies that have the potential to eventually attack healthy tissue and cause inflammatory diseases, researchers warned in a paper published in Nature Communications.1 They found autoantibodies in blood samples from roughly 50% of the 147 COVID-19 patients they studied, but in fewer than 15% of 41…