05/14/09 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its nod to certolizumab pegol (Cimzia), a drug previously approved to treat Crohn’s disease, to also treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.
Certolizumab pegol belongs to a class of biologic drugs that block an inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor alpha, or TNF-alpha. Other drugs in this category include etanercept (Enbrel), infliximab (Remicade), adalimumab (Humira) and golimumab (Simponi), which was approved last month.
Cimzia’s molecule is slightly different from the other drugs in its class, however, because it is pegylated, or coated, a process that, in theory, should help it slip by the body’s immune system more easily and may make it less likely to cause an infusion reaction.
Pegylation may also help the drug work more quickly. According to UCB, the Belgian company that makes certolizumab pegol, when used in conjunction with methotrexate, patients in clinical trials for Cimzia reported a reduction in symptoms as early as the first week.
Certolizumab pegol is administered with at-home injections, which can be given every two or four weeks.
UCB also worked with industrial designers OXO Products, the same company behind the Good Grips line of kitchen tools, to redesign the syringe that patients use to administer the drug. Noting that the design of the classic syringe, which is very difficult for some arthritis patients to use, had not changed substantially in a century, UCB worked with OXO to add features like an extra large loop at the top which make it more patient-friendly. The new device has earned the Arthritis Foundation’s Ease-of-Use Commendation.
UCB, in a press release, said the drug would be made available to rheumatoid arthritis patients within a week.
robin
Very interesting how money/funding for research for an RA cure got turned over into funding for more drugs, as drug companies became more powerful.
Some books I found very informative, in addition to Thomas Scammell's: 'Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients' by Roy Moynihan, 'The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Decive Us and What To Do About It'by Marcia Angell, 'On the Take:How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health' by Jerome P. Kass, 'The Hundred Year Lie: How To Protect Yourself From The Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health' by Randall Fitzgerald,
'Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Foods We Eat' by Fran Hawthorne,'Overdosed America:The Broken Promise of American Medicine' by John Abramson.
I am being been treated with minocyclene for RA and feel more confident and less worred about side effects than with any of the RA drugs. So far the numbers have proven it is effective. At least for me. Who knows what the future holds for me, but for now, I am doing well with it.
Thought I'd list some of the things i feel have helped me.I also eat all the suggested foods. And avoid the bad ones. My nephew has it,and he refuses to stop drinking and smoking and eating bad food and he is really struggling with it and had to go on embrel. I would rather eat healthy, and I never drank or smoked anyway, than go on stronger drugs. He is too heavy also for a young guy and the doctor has told him to lose weight which isnot happening and he also does not exercise or walk much at all where he lives. It hit his legs, but he wont make any effort to walk even to at least try to push through and help his legs, get stronger, even being pain free from the embrel.With me it is the hands, wrists etc.)I try to gentley nudge him into at least trying to live healthier and see if it helps his RA. I scoffed over all the suggetions of exercising, but seriously it is saving my life now. it also empowers me feeling like wow, if i can do all of this for all this time and feel great doing it and after doing it,, then i dont get AS depressed when i have a trouble with buttons or things around the house. for goodness sakes, i can do the treadmill for over an hour now and still keep going, so what is the big deal about buttons, bottles, opening cans?? i can deal with all of that with a much better attitude instead of getting depresseed or frustrated over it. so i cant relly use my thumbs and so those joints really kill me when i try to turn a key or get dressed. It just is not that big of a deal and I can cope with that since i am able to do other major exercises for long periods of time. I count my blessings of what i CAN do. and my rheumi tells me i am NOT am candiate for this spreading to other ogans or the heart since those cases seem to be patients who DONT exercise, or change their diets or take better care of their bodies. I dont know if this is true, but i have to accept it as true rather than think negatively and spend my life anxious and worrying about if those things can or will happen to me.
accuppuncture gave my thumb joints and y neck relief. cortizone did nothing for me. Pro Lo therapy shots were the best, But insurance does not cover that yet. Really really the best relief I got was with them.
here are soem of the things I have foudn that have helped me tremendously:
fish oils, flax oil
curcumin
tumeric
boswellia
bromelin
msm, hyaluronic acid
new chapter zyflmend softgels
xtendlife arthrit-eze
extra selenium
extra vitimin e,c,b-comples
potent mulitis
alamax cr (biotin,alpha lipoic acid,regenerates c,e, coQ10)
some other things. i do not take evey day. i play it by ear.
And please do not scoff at the food. Cherries and fruits really do help me. And lots of vegetables too. And I love them. If I am feeling fatigued etc. I know it is time to eat alot more greens again, and get out and do soem exercise.. But that is just me.
It has been challenging to fully explain to co-workers, friends, family and others how much pain I am in, and how it varies from day to day.
I'm pretty confident my RA was brought on by stress. My heart goes out to ALL arthritis sufferers. I read information about RA everyday and can never learn enough.
Until my diagnosis 10 years ago, most of my family, co-workers, friends and even my Primary Care Doctor would actually tell me I should be feeling good...after all, up until the diagnosis', I really did not show very much joint damage.
But there was another monster lurking in my life...Fibromyalgia..and it is a ghost. I almost started to believe I was crazy...and sudddenly finding ways to avoid my world, because I no longer fit in it. Fibromyalgia creeps into everyday of my life. It eliminates the essecence of the joy of making decisions about everyday choices...time with friends, community and family. The pain so real, so dibilitating.Together, my days can be long. Yet, I am still here and grateful for any news in the horizons that show indications these diseases will some day be out of our lives.
For someone who has just be given the news of RA, Fibromyalgia, or any of the other autoimmune diseases it is a long road to hoe until we find what works for us. I pray for cures, because all life, whether young or old should be of quality. To people who are in the labs looking for answers, I say good work. Don't give up! I certainly am not.
Mr Rawlins, I'm curious, what possessed you to read this article? Do you know someone that has this disease? There must be some reason that you were interested enough to read this information. I'd like to encourage you to go back and get some basics first. Get the "How, and Why." of RA so you'll have a fundamental understanding of it's workings. Then go on from there and read some of the info about a few of the other auto-immune disorders like Lupus, Crohn's, ankylosing spondylitis, and the numerous types of RA there is. I think you'll find that you never offer natural or holistic help to anyone ever again.
I am so sorry for the folks who's disease has not responded to any treatments. My heart breaks for you. I will say my prayers for you and send out as much positive energy as I can muster.
Oh, and thanks Sven for your thoughts, that felt really good to hear that.
Life stinks for this 12 yr old boy. I would give my life to have him walk . PAIN!!! all
day everyday.
The homeopathic stuff didn't help nor did the meds and now he has to stop taking everything. LIVER DAMAGE!!!. So people stop arguring and complaining about what works better, each person is different. Just be thankful you have something that helps. Not all of us can say that. PLEASE be thankful for each step you take and each painless moment. There are some who don't have that!
taking alternative or "natural" meds for the very reasons you state, Nancy. But, it is all the more profound when it comes from someone like you who was once on the alt med bandwagon.
There really is a thing called science and it really works way better at treating and curing diseases than non-science nonsense.
Pomegranate juice? Puhleeez!
I am glad you are feeling better, Nancy.
Your experience with RA is obviously limited. I have had the condition for approximately 15 yrs. The first 3 I spent treating myself with homeopathy, herbal, vitamin/mineral therapy and other anecdotal treatments that were reported to be effective in the control, management or cure of rheumatoid arthritis. All that happened was that I got progressively worse, the pain became unbearable, and I was depressed and exhausted constantly. As a matter of fact at one point, I was so tired from the unending pain that I began to think of suicide. It took a long time for me to get diagnosed. I have no idea why. I think the doctors were more willing to see me as a chronic complainer and drug seeker, but once I did get a diagnosis, I had to demand a referral to a specialist. I finally was able to receive treatment specific for RA, and my rheumatologist had been treating me for several months without improvement, when he decided to offer me treatment with one of the biologics. He informed me of the possible side effects and the possible benefits. Without hesitation I wanted to give it a try. Within 48 hrs of my first dose of Enbrel, I was symptom free.
I realize that is not the norm and it takes most people longer to experience the benefits of a biologic, but if you ever once experience RA at the level some of us have, you would understand why we are willing to accept the risk of some of the side affects.
Oh, and by the way, I have been on a biologic of one form or another now for about 10 yrs and haven't died yet. Life has been worth living, and I haven't thought of killing myself once.
I'm sorry if this sounds to confrontive of you Mr. Rawlins, but I was once just like you. I believed passionately in natural healing, but I have seen that industry become a racket and just as greedy as the drug companies. My experience is, they don't work over half the time. There are no regulatory agencies watching them or conducting studies to back up any of the claims that they make.
For me taking/using ANY of those so called cures or treatments was like taking a water pistol to a forest fire. I could never see or feel any improvement from any of the so called treatments.
It's so easy to condemn medicines that keep those of us who do have RA from become crippled. These medications don't just "take away the pain" they keep our immune systems from attacking our bodies.
I'm glad to see that there are new medicines still being created and produced.
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