The journal Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management published a study showing that Actemra offers an enhanced probability of being the best treatment for inducing an ACR20 response versus placebo, methotrexate (MTX), Humira or Enbrel. The study, which compared available data on the efficacy of biologic agents indicated for monotherapy treatment, found that Actemra allows a significantly greater proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis to attain clinical benefit within 6 months compared to other biologic therapies.

"The results of this analysis reinforce Actemra as an effective biologic monotherapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis," said Christine Birchwood, Medical Science Director, Genentech Immunology. "This is one of many studies that continue to support the effectiveness of Actemra for rheumatoid arthritis, and we are seeing an increasing trend of data supporting the use of Actemra as a monotherapy.

Researchers compared available efficacy data using ACR20/50/70 (American College of Rheumatology Core Data Set) criteria at 16 to 24 weeks and found Actemra offered the greatest possibility of obtaining an ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 outcome versus other monotherapies or placebo. ACR20, ACR50, or ACR70 response was defined as a 20%, 50%, or 70% improvement in tender and swollen joints, and same level of improvement in at least three of the following five disease parameters: patient's global assessment of disease activity, physician's global assessment of disease activity, patient's assessment of pain, patient's assessment of physical disability.

Findings showed that:

  • Tocilizumab increased the relative probability of being the best treatment (vs MTX) by 3.2-fold for all ACR outcomes.
  • All biologic treatments were better than placebo; however, for Humira and Enbrel, a statistically significant difference with MTX was not observed.
  • Humira and Enbrel were found to be comparable to MTX, in terms of granting an ACR20 response, but were then slightly better than MTX for ACR50 and ACR70 and always found to be better than placebo.