J&J, GSK ad­vance their PhI­II IL-6 rheuma­toid arthri­tis drug down to a busy red zone

A few months af­ter spelling out the piv­otal da­ta be­hind a new rheuma­toid arthri­tis drug that J&J be­lieves is on track to be­com­ing a block­buster, the phar­ma gi­ant and its col­lab­o­ra­tors at Glax­o­SmithK­line have sub­mit­ted sirukum­ab for Eu­ro­pean ap­proval, with an FDA ap­pli­ca­tion still in the works.

Back in June, in­ves­ti­ga­tors not­ed the 50 mg and 100 mg dose of sirukum­ab trig­gered a min­i­mum 20% im­prove­ment in RA symp­toms (ACR20) among 54.8% and 53.5% of pa­tients in the two drug arms. The place­bo arm ex­pe­ri­enced an ACR20 rate of about half that, 26.4%.

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