TUESDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) -- Adalimumab (Humira), which is already approved for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, is more effective than placebo at achieving both response and remission in patients with Crohn's disease, according to a study presented at the annual Digestive Disease Week meeting Monday in Los Angeles. That drug and other biologics may be helpful in treating such patients, researchers report.
Jean-Frederic Colombel, M.D., of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille in France, and colleagues studied adalimumab in 854 patients for 56 weeks. Forty-six percent of patients taking the drug achieved remission compared to just 17 percent on placebo. "We are confident that based on the results of this study, adalimumab use weekly or bimonthly effectively maintains clinical remission and response, steroid-free remission, and fistula closure in patients with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease," said Colombel.
In separate phase III trials, certolizumab pegol helped those with moderate to severe Crohn's disease, said William Sandborn, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic. In that study, 659 patients received the drug or placebo and at week four, 20 percent of those on the drug achieved remission or had a response compared with 10 percent of placebo takers.
Natalizumab (Tysabri) achieved remission in more than one quarter of the patients assigned to the drug treatment rather than placebo, said Stephan Targan, M.D., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In that study, 500 patients with Crohn's were randomly assigned to placebo or 400 milligrams of the drug subcutaneously every other week, then once a month up to week 24.
Tysabri, which was approved to treat multiple sclerosis but voluntarily withdrawn last year when it was possibly linked to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, is expected back on the market after an FDA advisory panel reviewed data and recommended its reintroduction.
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