Cimzia Drug Approved for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

Great news for rheumatoid arthritis patients!

UCB announced yesterday, May 14, 2009, that their Cimzia (certolizumab Pegol) drug was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis. 

According to UCB, “Cimzia® is available in an exclusively designed, patient-friendly, prefilled syringe resulting from the UCB partnership with OXO®. The new syringe carries the Arthritis Foundation(TM) Ease-of-Use Commendation.”

If Cimzia sounds familiar to you, it may be because the drug was already approved for the treatment of Crohn’s disease in April 2008.  This recent approval brings hope and another treatment option for patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

See UCB’s press release for more information regarding the FDA approval.

As soon as the FDA approval announcement is released, it will be posted here for you.

TNF-Blocker Users At Risk For Fungal Infections

originally published on 9/5/08

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release on September 4, 2008 indicating manufacturers of TNF-Blockers need to highlight the risk of fungal infections for patients taking those TNF-blockers. 

According to the FDA, “Patients taking TNF blockers should be aware that they are more susceptible to serious fungal infections.”  Additionally, “health care professionals are not consistently recognizing cases of histoplasmosis and other invasive fungal infections, leading to delays in treatment.”  Some of these cases even resulted in death.

The medications involved are Humira, Enbrel, Remicade, and Cimzia.  They are commonly used to treat some forms of arthritis and Crohn’s disease.  If you are taking one of these biologic drugs, then check out the press release for further details.  It is a must read!