Roche's RoActemra shows superiority to Humira in rheumatoid arthritis

Over 50% of rheumatoid arthritis patients can achieve low disease activity or remission with Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) RoActemra (tocilizumab), compared to under 20% of those treated with the most widely prescribed anti-TNF Humira (adalimumab) when neither drug is combined with methotrexate (51.5% versus 19.8%, assessed by DAS28 ≤3.2), according to new data published in The Lancet (March 18 issue).

The study exposed a wealth of data indicating the superiority of RoActemra over AbbVie’s blockbuster Humira, with almost four times as many patients achieving disease remission with RoActemra alone, compared to Humira alone (39.9% vs. 10.5%, assessed by DAS28 <2.6) and almost twice as many patients achieve a 70% improvement in the signs and symptoms of their disease (32.5% vs 17.9%, assessed by ACR70).

Good news for RA patients who cannot tolerate methotrexate