Treating Rheumatic Diseases: The Sooner the Better

from the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia
During the past 5 months, rheumatology societies issued substantively updated criteria for classifying two major rheumatic diseases. In June, the Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS) published new guidelines for classifying axial spondyloarthritis. And earlier this week, a collaborative group from the American College of [...]

Easy to Swallow

From the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology

 
Data establishing a safe and effective dose of an investigational oral janus kinase inhibitor CP-690,550 got a lot of attention at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. It may be phase II data, but people are excited about a drug with a molecule [...]

Rheumatoid Arthritis 5.0

From the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia
Rheumatologists have remade rheumatoid arthritis, a pretty big deal for them if only because it’s “the major systemic rheumatic disease that we as a specialty treat,” said Dr. Michael E. Weinblatt, a Harvard rheumatologist, at the end of a 90-minute session on Sunday [...]

Waiting for Febuxostat

The annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, San Francisco
Here at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, the talk between investigators is about how the Food and Drug Administration has stopped approving new drugs. This case of regulatory paralysis makes no sense, according to people who talked to me on the [...]