A biosimilar for golimumab has demonstrated therapeutic equivalence in rheumatoid arthritis, with no clinically meaningful safety differences, according to a press release from the manufacturer. The topline results, announced by Alvotech, stem from a confirmatory clinical study for AVT05, the company’s proposed biosimilar to the TNF alpha inhibitors Simponi and Simponi Aria (golimumab, Janssen Biotech). “We are delighted at passing yet another clinical milestone in our pipeline,” Robert Wessman, chairman and CEO of Alvotech, said in the release. “We intend to file ..read more

This year’s Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East will celebrate the annual meeting’s 40th anniversary with banquets, record in-person attendance and a host of new presenters. “Forty years is a big milestone for us,” David A. McLain, MD, executive director of the Alabama Society for the Rheumatic Diseases, and symposium director of the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology, told Healio Rheumatology. “We will feature a lot of new faces, as well.” The meeting will run from May 9 to May 12 at the Sandestin Hilton and Conference Center in Destin, Florida. Nearly 700 ..read more

Patients in rheumatoid arthritis remission who tapered off conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs had higher risks for flares, with two methods failing to reach non-inferiority vs. stable dosage, according to data. “An increasing number of patients with rheumatoid arthritis achieve sustained remission, even when using first-line treatment with methotrexate and other conventional synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARDs),” Kaja E. Kjørholt, MD, of Diakonhjemmet Hospital, in Norway, told Healio regarding the study published in The Lancet ..read more

Aerobic and resistance training are recommended for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, but should be tailored to the individual and, ideally, supervised by a professional, according to recommendations published in RMD Open. “Despite the clear potential benefits, incorporating physical activity and exercise into the lives of persons living with SLE presents unique challenges,” Julien Blaess, of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, in France, and colleagues wrote. “Compared with generic recommendations for physical activity and exercise in people with ..read more

Higher scores on a measure of sinonasal symptoms can predict ANCA-associated vasculitis relapse “months to years” ahead of time, according data published in Arthritis Care & Research. The 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) could enhance prediction of relapse among high-risk patients and may be useful in selectively escalating or de-escalating immunosuppressive therapy, Ellen Romich, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues wrote. “Sinonasal symptoms are common in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and can negatively impact quality of life, but it can be ..read more

In this video exclusive, Leonard Calabrese, DO, chief medical editor of Healio Rheumatology, lays out the top stories out of the April issue, including the cover story centering on providers’ priorities regarding work-life balance. “This is really a riff on burnout,” Calabrese said. “It’s about intergenerational differences between practitioners and how we effect work-life balance. This sounds touchy-feely, but it’s the essence of making a happy career.” The issue also contains “a very nice review” of the state of CAR-T cell therapy for ..read more

When it comes to work-life balance, providers in the past skewed more toward work than life. However, shifting demographics in the medical workforce, increasing capacity for communication and the COVID-19 pandemic have fundamentally altered that calculus. “The expectation and acceptance that doctors should work all day and all week with no time for themselves and their families has definitely changed,” Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, director of the Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, and chief of breast medical oncology at the Yale Cancer Center, told Healio ..read more

Indications for the use of checkpoint inhibitors are ever expanding. However, even as these drugs have helped patients with cancer live longer, the emergence of various immune related adverse events limits their full potential in many. There is a pressing need for collaboration between various subspecialists, advanced practice providers and, above all, patients to facilitate the understanding of disease mechanisms, diagnosis and the best ways to manage these immune related adverse events (irAEs). To achieve this goal, the inaugural irAE Consortium was held at the Cleveland Clinic on March 7-8 ..read more

I recently had the pleasure of attending a symposium at the Cleveland Clinic that featured an outstanding review of immune-related adverse events, and I was reminded of how far we have come in the decade since I first became involved in the evolution of this disease class. For rheumatologists, this topic — which is covered elsewhere in this April issue of Healio Rheumatology by Alexa Meara, MD, a rheumatologist who spends the majority of her time caring and studying irAEs — represents a critically important group of disorders. In the early days, they seemed so rare that many of us ..read more

The power of biologics in treating rheumatoid arthritis bested the benefits of the Mediterranean diet in this year’s RheumMadness tournament, coming out ahead as the most “practically perfect” nugget to carry forward into practice. In the rheumatology-themed, March Madness-style online tournament, 16 trials went head-to-head through four rounds of voting to reveal which contained the most useful findings for everyday clinical practice. The tournament culminated in the NORD-STAR biologics trial halting the Cinderella run of ADIRA, a study of the Mediterranean diet in RA. The ..read more