OBJECTIVE: To examine the safety of anakinra when added to a background of standard rheumatoid arthritis (RA) medications in patients with RA with active disease. METHODS: This analysis further evaluates data from the first 6 months of a blinded, placebo controlled safety trial that had a subsequent 30 month, open label portion (not reported here). Patients with RA with a wide range of comorbid conditions, disease activity, and background medications were randomly assigned in a 4:1 allocation ratio to treatment with anakinra 100 mg or placebo administered daily by injection. Safety was assessed by comparing adverse event profiles between anakinra and placebo patients according to concomitant medications received. RESULTS: Anakinra patients (n = 1116) showed no difference in the incidence of upper respiratory infections or overall serious adverse events compared with placebo patients (n = 283). The anakinra group had more injection site reactions (72.6% vs 32.9% in placebo) and a small increase in serious infections (2.1% vs 0.4% in placebo). Anakinra's safety profile did not differ in patients receiving antihypertensive, antidiabetic, or statin drugs. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that anakinra has a good safety profile in patients typically seen in a rheumatology practice who are considered candidates for therapy with agents that are immunomodulatory and disease modifying. Except for injection site reactions and a nonstatistically although potentially clinically significant increase in serious infections in the anakinra versus the placebo groups, the addition of anakinra to a stable background regimen of RA medications introduced no other important safety risk in patients with RA.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVE: To examine the safety of anakinra when added to a background of standard rheumatoid arthritis (RA) medications in patients with RA with active disease. METHODS: This analysis further evaluates data from the first 6 months of a blinded, placebo controlled safety trial that had a subsequent 30 month, open label portion (not reported here). Patients with RA with a wide range of comorbid conditions, disease activity, and background medications were randomly assigned in a 4:1 allocation ratio to treatment with anakinra 100 mg or placebo administered daily by injection. Safety was assessed by comparing adverse event profiles between anakinra and placebo patients according to concomitant medications received. RESULTS: Anakinra patients (n = 1116) showed no difference in the incidence of upper respiratory infections or overall serious adverse events compared with placebo patients (n = 283). The anakinra group had more injection site reactions (72.6% vs 32.9% in placebo) and a small increase in serious infections (2.1% vs 0.4% in placebo). Anakinra's safety profile did not differ in patients receiving antihypertensive, antidiabetic, or statin drugs. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that anakinra has a good safety profile in patients typically seen in a rheumatology practice who are considered candidates for therapy with agents that are immunomodulatory and disease modifying. Except for injection site reactions and a nonstatistically although potentially clinically significant increase in serious infections in the anakinra versus the placebo groups, the addition of anakinra to a stable background regimen of RA medications introduced no other important safety risk in patients with RA.
Authors: R M Fleischmann; J Tesser; M H Schiff; J Schechtman; G-R Burmester; R Bennett; D Modafferi; L Zhou; D Bell; B Appleton Journal: Ann Rheum Dis Date: 2006-01-05 Impact factor: 19.103
Authors: Jasvinder A Singh; George A Wells; Robin Christensen; Elizabeth Tanjong Ghogomu; Lara Maxwell; John K Macdonald; Graziella Filippini; Nicole Skoetz; Damian Francis; Luciane C Lopes; Gordon H Guyatt; Jochen Schmitt; Loredana La Mantia; Tobias Weberschock; Juliana F Roos; Hendrik Siebert; Sarah Hershan; Michael Pt Lunn; Peter Tugwell; Rachelle Buchbinder Journal: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Date: 2011-02-16
Authors: D E Furst; F C Breedveld; J R Kalden; J S Smolen; G R Burmester; J W J Bijlsma; M Dougados; P Emery; E C Keystone; L Klareskog; P J Mease Journal: Ann Rheum Dis Date: 2005-11 Impact factor: 19.103
Authors: Mitesh J Borad; Kelly K Curtis; Hani M Babiker; Martin Benjamin; Raoul Tibes; Ramesh K Ramanathan; Karen Wright; Amylou C Dueck; Gayle Jameson; Daniel D Von Hoff Journal: J Cancer Date: 2012-08-17 Impact factor: 4.207