MEDICINE Drug offers new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

The results in studies of rituximab show promise.
BOSTON (AP) -- For the first time, a drug has relieved rheumatoid arthritis by knocking out a certain type of immune cell -- an approach that could open the way for precisely targeted, "smart" treatments for the joint disease and other illnesses, too.
Other arthritis drugs on the market either treat just the symptoms, or employ a broader, more scattershot effect against the underlying process. Such drugs can have toxic side effects because they kill healthy cells along with the diseased ones.
The latest research, an international study led at University College London and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, looked at a drug called rituximab, and the results were promising.
"I think this is a pivotal study," said Dr. John Klippel, president of the Arthritis Foundation. "This is opening up a new era of targeted biologic therapies for rheumatoid arthritis."
How it works
In rheumatoid arthritis, antibodies misdirect friendly fire against the body's own joint linings. Joints become inflamed, swollen and painful. More than 2 million Americans, mostly women, have the disease.
Rituximab, which is sold under the brand name Rituxan and is already approved for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, targets B cells, which manufacture these antibodies.
The researchers compared rituximab to other drugs in 161 patients with arthritis.
For two weeks, patients took rituximab alone or in combination with two other drugs: the standard drug, methotrexate, and the less widely used cyclophosphamide. Another group took methotrexate alone.
Roche, a distributor of rituximab, funded and participated in the study.
After six months, more than 40 percent of patients who took rituximab combinations were greatly improved. One-third of patients on rituximab alone were greatly improved. But only 13 percent of those on the standard drug alone improved that much.