Enbrel

Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering treatment, remains the best-selling drug in America. But Pfizer , the drug’s maker, is facing renewed competition from biotechs like Amgen that were hardly on the map a decade ago– and renewed threats from cheap generic drugs.That’s the picture from newly released data from IMS Health , a pharmaceutical information and consulting company that independently keeps track of how often medicines are prescribed and how much revenue they are generating. IMS has... Read Full Story

Belgian drugmaker UCB said Wednesday it received federal approval for an injectable drug to treat arthritis, entering a competitive market dominated by some of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Cimzia for patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. The injectable medication was previously approved to treat gastrointestinal Crohn's disease last April. Cimzia is the fourth in a class of drugs known as tumor necrosis factor... Read Full Story

Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs Raise Shingles Risk Older people and those also taking steroids are most vulnerable, study finds By Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=624196 Read Full Story

Etanercept, Methotrexate Safe for Juvenile RA Review finds use, even in combo, an effective long-term treatment MONDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The drugs etanercept and methotrexate are safe and effective for long-term, continuous treatment of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, new research finds. In a three-year study that enrolled about 600 patients, aged 2 to 18, some of the children took methotrexate alone, others took etanercept alone, and another group took both drugs... Read Full Story

FDA Demands Tougher Warnings on Immunosuppressive Drugs Officials want stronger labeling about fungal infection risk By Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Federal health authorities have asked the manufacturers of four widely used immunosuppressive drugs to bolster safety warnings on the risk of developing opportunistic fungal infections. The drugs, Humira, Cimzia, Enbrel and Remicade, belong to a class of medications known as tumor necrosis... Read Full Story

Did you know that there are over a hundred different kinds of arthritis? You also may find it surprising to learn that it’s not only adults who may need to deal with this ailment; children also suffer from it. Though unusual, children can develop a form of the ailment called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Juvenile and adult rheumatoid arthritis share many symptoms. However you should know that there are specific differences as well. Read Full Story

Jennifer Wider graduated from Princeton University in 1994 with B.A. in the humanities. She received her medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1999. During medical school, she interned at a CBS local news affiliate and 20/20 in New York City. Jennifer worked as a senior editor at Medscape/CBS HealthWatch out of medical school. She has had many publications in newspapers, magazines and websites across the country and has been a guest on CBS News, National Public Radio and... Read Full Story

Study Examines How Rheumatoid Arthritis Destroys Bone Enzyme called Smurf1 acts as signaling partner that turns off building-block proteins FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- New details about how rheumatoid arthritis destroys bone have been uncovered by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers, who said their findings are already helping efforts to create new drugs to reverse the process. Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that affects about two million... Read Full Story

Infrared Sauna Therapy Successful in Helping Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients New research from The Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands has shown that infrared saunas reduce pain in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) sufferers. A group of seventeen patients with rheumatoid arthritis and a group of seventeen patients suffering with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) underwent infrared sauna for a period of 4 weeks, with a series... Read Full Story

Infrared Sauna Therapy Successful in Helping Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients New research from The Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands has shown that infrared saunas reduce pain in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) sufferers. A group of seventeen patients with rheumatoid arthritis and a group of seventeen patients suffering with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) underwent infrared sauna for a period of 4 weeks, with a series... Read Full Story