SELECT
» Biotechnology facts and figures
» Drugs in development
» Key Technologies
DISEASES
» Anemia (2005)
» Breast Cancer (2007)
» Cardiovascular Diseases (2007)
» Diabetes (2005)
» Growth Hormone Deficiency (2005)
» Haemophilia (2005)
» Hepatitis B (2005)
» Inflammatory Bowel Disease (2007)
» Lymphomas (2005)
» Multiple Sclerosis (2005)
» Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Inflammatory Rheumatism (2007)
Biotechnology for
Rheumatoid Arthritis and other Inflammatory Rheumatism (2007)
<table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">The disease</span><br> <span class="rteColumn">Chronic inflammatory joint disease is a group of diseases characterized by the chronic inflammation of joints leading to their progressive and irreversible destruction. Their progression is marked by successive inflammatory bouts. The most frequent are rheumatoid arthritis, spondylarthropathies (among which ankylosing spondylitis) and psoriatic arthritis (which affects about 20% of those with psoriasis). In children, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is a heterogenous group of joint conditions. </span> <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=1" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">How many people are affected ?</span><br> Patients with chronic inflammatory joint disease – particularly those with rheumatoid arthritis– are significantly more likely to die than healthy people, although the principal cause of mortality is cardiovascular in origin. Mortality figures for children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (about. 0.3% a year) are much higher than expected mortality. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=2" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">How many people die from the disease?</span><br> The total number of cases in the European Union is thought to be around 3 million adults (including 2 million with rheumatoid arthritis) and 50, 000 children. There are an estimated 90,000 new cases of rheumatoid arthritis each year in the European Union. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=3" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Living with the disease</span><br> The quality of life of patients with chronic inflammatory joint disease is compromised: around 30% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a slight to serious disability after 10 years of the disease. The principal consequence is a progressive inability to continue working. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=4" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> <tr> <td><span class="diseaseSubTitle">Treatment <font color='#FFFFFF' size=-2>Témoignage patient de </font> </span></td> </tr> <tr> <td><span class="diseaseText"><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="10"></span></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Traditional approach</span><br> The long-term treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis involves a drug which modulates the immune system, methotrexate. This drug, like other DMARDs (Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs), is effective on the symptoms of the disease but less so on joint destruction. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are the treatment of choice for ankylosing spondylitis, have no effect on the course of severe forms of the disease. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=5" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> <td> </td> <td valign="top" bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Biotech revolutions</span><br> Understanding the role TNF a (tumour necrosis factor, a protein produced by numerous cells in the body) plays in chronic inflammatory joint disease has enabled the emergence of new drugs. These new biological agents, whose role is to prevent TNF a from acting to excess, have shown themselves to be very effective in slowing the progression of the disease. Other biological agents acting through different mechanisms are also effective. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=6" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="227" height="1"></td> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1"></td> <td><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="227" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#B9E3FF"> <td colspan="3"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle2">Drugs currently available</span><br> Three TNF inhibitors (two monoclonal antibodies: infliximab and adalimumab, and etanercept, which is a soluble form of the TNF receptor) improve the symptoms of chronic inflammatory joint disease, slow down progression of joint damage and preserve patients’ abilities to lead normal lives. Other biotech drugs can work well if TNF inhibitors fail to help patients with rheumatoid arthritis. These include anakinra (an interleukin-1 inhibitor), rituximab (directed against B-lymphocytes) and abatacept (which inhibits activation of T-lymphocytes). <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=7" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3"><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="5"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Number of patients treated</span><br> Recourse to anti-TNFs appears to be justified for at least 10 to 15% of patients with chronic inflammatory joint disease (active forms resistant to methotrexate). On a European scale, this represents a target of at least 300,000 patients. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=8" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Future</span><br> Other products are under development, in particular tocilizumab, a humanised monoclonal antibody anti-receptor of IL 6. The results for tocilizumab appear to be spectacular, and regulatory approval will be sought by the end of 2007. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=9" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table> <table width="485" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <span class="diseaseSubTitle">Costs to society</span><br> There is no data for the whole of Europe, but it can be estimated that the average annual cost (direct and indirect) is between € 10 000 and € 15 000 per patient with chronic inflammatory joint disease, or € 30 to € 45 billion per annum for the whole of the European Union. The very high cost of biotherapy treatment may be offset, at least in part, by the reduction in other costs. <a href="more.php?diseaseid=24&bloc=10" class="lienBleu">More</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../images/pix.gif" width="1" height="15"></td> </tr> </table>
