Infliximab

Infliximab maintenance therapy could reduce pain and disease activity in hidradenitis suppurativa, according to a study published in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

For some patients with inflammatory bowel disease, treatments can be ineffective, and in patients where they do work, they do not always last.

AUSTIN, Texas — In this exclusive video from Crohn’s & Colitis Congress, James Lindsay, PhD, FRCP, professor of inflammatory bowel disease at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London and a consultant gastroenterologist at Barts Health NHS Trust, discusses positioning therapies in ulcerative colitis.

Common sense might dictate that, in maintaining health and wellness, being proactive is generally better than being reactive. But the practice of medicine often demands more than just common sense — it demands data and evidence to support clinical decision making. The discussion of therapeutic drug monitoring for biologic therapies hinges on this conundrum. Proactive monitoring appears to be the common-sense approach, but the data supporting its use have not yet closed the case.

SAN ANTONIO — Researchers investigating racial disparities in health care found no significant difference in the use of biologics or other inflammatory bowel disease-specific treatments among black patients and white patients with the condition, according to an analysis of Medicaid data presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.

SAN ANTONIO — In patients with inflammatory bowel disease, first-line vedolizumab treatment did not appear to compromise the effectiveness of successive anti-TNF treatment in real-world practice, according to findings presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.

The European Commission has approved the subcutaneous formulation of Celltrion’s infliximab biosimilar for adult patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to a prior DMARD, as well as patients with severe, active and progressive disease not previously treated with DMARDs, according to a manufacturer press release.

SAN FRANCISCO — Only adalimumab is FDA-approved for the treatment of noninfectious intermediate and posterior uveitis and panuveitis; however, other biologics hold promise for the treatment of ocular inflammation, according to a presentation at Cornea Subspecialty Day at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting.

ATLANTA — Data from the Varicella Zoster Vaccine study demonstrate that administering live, attenuated varicella vaccine to patients taking TNF inhibitors did not result in any safety events or disease flare after 6 weeks. In addition, there were no cases of varicella infection — either wild or vaccine type.

ATLANTA — Annual public spending by Medicare and Medicaid on biologic DMARDs more than doubled, from $5.3 billion in 2012 to $10.3 billion in 2016, largely due to post-market price increases, according to Natalie McCormick, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.