Arthritis drug abatacept shows promise in preventing the disease in high-risk patients

In those who are considered to be at risk, a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis may help prevent the illness.

Patients with arthritis now have hope according to Phase 2b clinical trial results that were published in The Lancet. The biologic medication abatacept was found to slow the course of this excruciating chronic inflammatory condition.

Millions of individuals worldwide suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that causes joint pain, swelling, and severe disability when the immune system assaults the body.

Although it can affect people much younger, the condition most often strikes in middle life. Currently, there is neither a treatment nor a preventative measure for it.

For patients with established rheumatoid arthritis, abatacept is now used as an effective second or third line therapy. It is administered via weekly drip injections at home or in a hospital.

To find out if a biologic medication administered for a year may stop the disease's development to rheumatoid arthritis, researchers from King's College London, UK, enrolled 213 individuals who were at high risk of developing the condition.

They recruited men and women over the age of 18 with early symptoms such as joint pain but no joint swelling, and treated half with the drug and half with a placebo every week for a year.

The study drug was then stopped, and study participants monitored for a further 12 months.

After twelve months of treatment, 6 per cent of patients treated with abatacept had developed arthritis compared to 29 per cent in the placebo arm.

By 24 months, the differences were still significant, with a total of 25 per cent progressing to rheumatoid arthritis in the abatacept arm compared to 37 per cent in the placebo arm.

“This is the largest rheumatoid arthritis prevention trial to date and the first to show that a therapy licensed for use in treating established rheumatoid arthritis is also effective in preventing the onset of disease in people at risk," said Prof. Andrew Cope, from King’s College London.

"These initial results could be good news for people at risk of arthritis as we show that the drug not only prevents disease onset during the treatment phase but can also ease symptoms such as pain and fatigue. This is also promising news for the NHS as the disease affects people as they age and will become more expensive to treat with a growing ageing population," he added.

The trial also showed that abatacept was associated with improvements in pain scores, function and quality of life measurements, as well as lower scores of inflammation of the lining of joints detectable by ultrasound scan.