New advances in the management of juvenile idiopathic arthritis--2: the era of biologicals.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common paediatric rheumatic disease with significant long-term morbidity and mortality. Major advances have taken place in recent years in our understanding and the evidence base of JIA. The advent of biological therapies has opened a major new era in the medical management of JIA with recent trials published of etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab, abatacept, tocilizumab and anakinra. National and international collaborative clinical and research networks are ideally placed to enable future advances in the management of JIA and all paediatric rheumatic disorders. This review follows on from Part 1 of a review of recent advances in non-biological therapies in JIA, and focuses on the significant new advances in biological therapies in managing JIA.