AbbVie’s new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is a win for the drug maker seeking to widen its portfolio as its blockbuster flagship therapy Humira faces competition.
The drug, Rinvoq is additionally called as upadacitinib and it has a place with a class of medications known as JAK inhibitors which block inflammation-causing enzymes called Janus kinases. Rinvoq’s name has a warning that flags risks of serious infections and lymphoma. In a notice, the FDA likewise said that patients taking JAK inhibitors, in general, risked developing blood clots.
Cindy McDaniel, senior vice president, consumer health, Arthritis Foundation, reported in a prepared statement “On the lives of those with the chronic disease Rheumatoid arthritis can have a debilitating impact, including making it difficult to perform everyday tasks.”
As indicated by AbbVie, patients taking upadacitinib achieved clinical remission, with almost no disease activity and side effects. The trail also showed that upadacitinib improved results in RA patients compared to Humira, AbbVie’s blockbuster anti-TNF drug which is approved in the same indication.
On the label of the drug Rinvoq, there is a warning that flags risks of serious infections and lymphoma. The FDA said in a notice that in patients who take JAK inhibitors in general, risked developing blood clots. By signing deals with rival companies, AbbVie has been aggressively fending off competition for Humira to prevent their cheap versions of the drug from entering the United States, its biggest market, until 2023.