Rheumatoid Arthritis Trial shows week 12 response to Cimzia (UCB) predicts response at 1 year.

A post-hoc analysis suggests that in patients with moderate to severe (RA), activity response rates to Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) plus methotrexate (MTX), from UCB, as early as Week 12 helped predict the effect on structural joint damage at one year. The study examined whether RAPID3 or EULAR responses at Week 12 predicted structural joint damage at one year (defined as change from baseline in modified Total Sharp Score [mTSS]) in patients treated with Cimzia plus MTX or placebo plus MTX. At Week 12, the majority of Cimzia plus MTX patients had good/moderate RAPID3 or EULAR responses (66.8% and 77.6% respectively, versus 23.5% and 29.1% for placebo plus MTX). At Week 52, patients with a good/moderate RAPID3 or EULAR response at Week 12 had reduced disease progression compared to patients with poor responses. According to Edward Keystone, The Rebecca MacDonald Center for Arthritis, Mount Sinai Hospital, The University of Toronto, the results indicated that if a patient responds to treatment at 12 Weeks, it may predict disease progression at one year. Comparable responses were found by both RAPID3 and EULAR assesments, suggesting that either response criteria could be used as predictors of structural joint damage. The data were presented at the American College of Rheumatology's 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting.