Arzerra (ofatumumab) in

rheumatoid arthritis

Taken from NRAS magazine, Winter 2009

In July the top-line results of a trial of Arzerra (ofatumumab) supported further investigation of ofatumumab in RA. This is a drug being developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Genmab and the companies have already filed for a license for chronic lymphoid leukaemia.

Ofatumumab was known as HuMax-CD20 and is similar to Roche's drug MabThera (rituximab) which has been approved in both cancer indications and in RA.

These results are from a study in 260 people with RA that did not respond sufficiently to methotrexate, although everyone continued to receive methotrexate throughout the study. At 24 weeks, ofatumumab (give as two infusions two weeks apart) led to an at least 20% reduction in symptoms (ACR20) in 50% of the patients, compared with 27% in the placebo group.