Psoriatic Arthritis News

Amgen has entered into an agreement with Celgene to acquire worldwide rights to Otezla for $13.4 billion in cash, or approximately $11.2 billion, net of the present value of $2.2 billion in anticipated future cash tax benefits.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of Amgen in its lawsuit against Novartis’ Sandoz, which claimed patent infringement on its biologic etanercept by the biosimilar, etanercept-szzs.

ORLANDO — Decreased sexual functioning is more common among female patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, which should prompt early screenings for these patient populations, according to study findings presented at the Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.

A patient diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis at 18 to 40 years of age carries a greater risk for joint surgery than someone aged 60 years or older in the general population, according to findings published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

There have been nearly 1,100 measles cases in the United States in the first half of 2019 — more cases of measles than in any year since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. As of July 25, 30 states have reported cases of measles, with outbreaks currently ongoing in five jurisdictions across the country.

The FDA has approved the fourth biosimilar to adalimumab, adalimumab-bwwd, for all eligible indications of the biologic product, according to a company press release.

Most scientists, by nature and by training, are in one business: Observe a knowledge gap, and fill it. With that in mind, in 2001, the founders of the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America (Corrona) LLC recognized that there was no database — independent of big pharma — that collected clinical data from both rheumatologists and patients on the safety and efficacy of emerging drug therapies.

Patients with psoriatic arthritis who received biological DMARDs demonstrate better bone mass and strength than those treated with methotrexate or no DMARDs at all, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

White blood cell counts and inflammatory markers may hold lower diagnostic utility among patients in an immunosuppressed state who experienced periprosthetic joint infection after total joint arthroplasty, according to published research.

Political activism is more accessible than ever thanks to the amplification offered by social media, and rheumatologists can use social media — particularly Twitter — to advocate for the profession and their patients, according to Angus Worthing, MD, private practice rheumatologist and chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the American College of Rheumatology.