Tocilizumab shown to inhibit progression of

joint destruction and improves physical

function of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Taken from NRAS magazine, Winter 2008

The results from the LITHE1 study were presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco last October. The study showed that a greater proportion of patients treated with tocilizumab in combination with methotrexate (MTX) benefited from a significant inhibition of structural damage during 12 months of therapy compared to patients treated with MTX alone.

Tocilizumab also improved the patients' ability to perform normal daily activities, as assessed by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)2, leading to a better quality of life.

Significantly more patients treated with tocilizumab achieved remission than those treated with MTX alone (47% vs. 8%). The improvement in remission at one year reinforces the strong remission data seen at 6 months in four additional tocilizumab phase III trials across multiple RA patient populations.

In the LITHE study, tocilizumab was generally well tolerated and the overall safety profile after 12 months of treatment was consistent with previously reported 6 month trial data.