Abbott Laboratories finds drug combo works best for rheumatoid arthritis

A combination drug therapy is successful in treating early stage rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to research published in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Researchers, sponsored by Abbot Laboratories, found that patients given both disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) and anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs achieved remission more successfully than receiving either treatment alone.

The study looked at 799 patients at sites across Europe, Australia and North America, who had an average age of 52 and had RA for only six months or less. Researchers divided the group into three; two single treatment groups were given either DMARD drug MTX or anti-TNF treatment adalimumab, whilst one group was given both.

Combining DMAND and anti-TNF therapies also proved to be safe and was well tolerated by the patients, who displayed few adverse reactions.

George T Spencer-Green, spokesperson for the study, said that the participants had a particular aggressive form of the disease and that milder RA sufferers could benefit from a single DMARD therapy.

“For the patient with early, aggressive and erosive RA, treatment with combination therapy is superior to treatment with MTX alone,” he added.

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