RA prevention trial now underway in UK

Researchers have initiated a trial in the United Kingdom aimed at preventing rheumatoid arthritis in patients who have joint pain without swelling and laboratory-confirmed autoimmune markers, according to a press release from England’s National Institute for Health Research.

“Preventing chronic diseases and finding ways to minimize their progression is vital for patients’ quality of life,” Sally C. Davies, FRS FMedSci, chief medical officer for England, said in the release. “The government created Translational Research Partnerships to work in collaboration with the life sciences industry specifically to drive the development of new treatment options for people with debilitating conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.”

Participants enrolled in the Arthritis Prevention in the Pre-clinical Phase of RA with Abatacept (APIPPRA) trial will receive targeted immunotherapy with Orencia (abatacept, Bristol-Meyers Squibb) at 31 hospitals in the U.K. Bristol-Meyers Squibb is providing the drug and a £3 million grant to conduct the study. More than 200 people at high risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) will be enrolled and treated during a 2-year period, according to the release.

“This is a very exciting study of a therapy that is a logical choice for the very earliest detectable phase of the disease process,” Andrew Cope, PhD, a researcher from the National Institute for Health Research Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre at King’s College London of the King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre in London who was involved in the study design, said in the release. “This is an important first step toward curing this chronic, disabling disease that affects over half a million adults in the U.K.”

Reference : www.nocri.nihr.ac.uk.