New Remedy for Arthritis

[jmjm530]

Wonder if anyone familiar with Remicade as this appears to be the "follow-up" drug? Like many, I have started to develop arthritic symptons -- or let's say they have seemed to accelerate -- post treatment. Cause and effect in my case is unclear although the treatment drugs are known to bring autoimmune conditions out of the woodwork.
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F.D.A. Allows New Remedy for Arthritis

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration approved a potential blockbuster drug from Johnson & Johnson on Friday that fights three forms of arthritis caused by immune-system disorders.

The injectable medication, called Simponi, is essentially a follow-up to the multibillion-dollar drug Remicade, which is marketed in the United States by Johnson & Johnson and in Europe and other countries by the Schering-Plough Corporation.

Combined sales of the drug were more than $5 billion last year.

Sales of the new drug would be similarly split between the two companies.

F.D.A. regulators have approved the drug for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, a painful, progressive form of spinal arthritis. All three forms of arthritis are chronic disorders in which the immune system attacks joints, causing stiffness, pain and restricted motion.

The drug is injected under the skin once a month. It is made to be used alongside drugs that suppress the immune system.

Johnson & Johnson and Schering have described the drug as the new standard of so-called tumor necrosis factor blockers, a group of drugs that includes Enbrel from Wyeth and Amgen, and Humira from Abbott Laboratories. Unlike Simponi, those drugs are generally injected once every week or two weeks.

The drug class works by engaging and neutralizing a protein that, when overproduced, causes inflammation and damage to bones, cartilage and other tissue.

The moneymaking potential of Simponi and Remicade is among the reasons Merck & Company, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., is acquiring Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/business/25drug.html?ref=health

[Kristina538]

Hi Jim,
I know from your 'talk-type software' that you had trouble with RA, and hope you can answer a couple of questions for me.    I am having trouble with my arms and hands since 1 month post tx.   My doc seemed to dismiss it, saying I could try acupuncture if I wanted to.    I've been managing with Korean massage, splinting my hands at night sometimes, and magnesium/omegas/water.

Would you know if it is likely that RA would affect my arms and hands only?  The tendons in my middle fingers on both hands just feel as though they're shrinking.  I'm doing exercises throughout the day, but if it worsens, I may have to resign from my job.    Does this sound familiar to the scenario you went through??

Many thanks..

[FloridaMouse]

Remicade is a biologic injection, in the same class of drugs as Humira, Enbrel and Orencia.  I have been taking Humira for rhematoid arthritis and it seems to be doing it's job as my rheumy says.  It keeps me out of the emergency room with serious flares which had become a habit for me.

These drugs are usually reserved for "rheumatoid" type arthritis and getting insurance companies to approve them is not normally easy.  I was lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it), because I have advanced liver damage I could only take minimal doses of the less expensive drug (methotrexate) so I was able to get approved for the biologic on the first attempt.

Mouse