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Etanercept for patients with RA: more is not always better

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From Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology

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Abstract

Weinblatt and colleagues have studied the efficacy and safety of etanercept 50 mg twice weekly in comparison with etanercept 50 mg once weekly in patients with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis. The study failed to demonstrate any clinically meaningful or statistically significant benefit of the use of the twice weekly dosage. There was also a suggestion that the incidence of certain toxic effects, including sepsis, could be greater in patients receiving the twice weekly dosage, although the numbers of adverse events reported were too small to reach firm conclusions regarding additional toxicity of this higher dose. In the absence of a larger and longer-term investigation, the results of this investigation indicate that increasing the dose of etanercept beyond 50 mg weekly is not advantageous and suggest that an increased dose could be more dangerous for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

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References

  1. Weinblatt ME et al. (2008) Efficacy and safety of etanercept 50 mg twice a week in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had a suboptimal response to etanercept 50 mg once a week: results of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, active drug-controlled study. Arthritis Rheum 58: 1921–1930

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. JM Kremer is Pfaff Family Professor of Medicine at the Albany Medical College and Director of Research at The Center for Rheumatology in Albany, NY, USA.,

    Joel M Kremer

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  1. Joel M Kremer
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Correspondence to Joel M Kremer.

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Competing interests

JM Kremer has been a consultant for and received speakers' fees and grant/research support from Amgen and Wyeth.

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Kremer, J. Etanercept for patients with RA: more is not always better. Nat Rev Rheumatol 5, 10–11 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncprheum0936

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncprheum0936

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