Humira shows three year fistula effect

New data showed that Abbott's Humira (adalimumab) provided long-term treatment of fistulas. More than half of patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease experienced healing at three years, according to clinical research presented at the United European Gastroenterology Week congress in Vienna, Austria.

Considered one of the most disabling complications of the disease, fistulas are tunnels that form between the intestine and other parts of the body. Data also showed response to Humira in difficult-to-treat patients - those with fistulas who had failed to respond, lost response to, or were intolerant of Remicade (infliximab), a rival tumor necrosis factor-alpha blocker made by Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough.

Results from an open-label extension of the CHARM study, Abbott's one-year, Phase III trial, showed that 58% of patients with fistulas at baseline experienced healing at the one-year completion of the trial, and this was maintained through year one of the open-label extension. After a total of two years treatment, 59% experienced healing, while about two thirds who continued treatment through year two of the open-label extension did likewise.