Roche's RoActemra beats leading rival Humira in RA study; other news from EULAR

Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) yesterday released new data from the ADACTA study which showed that adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who received its RoActemra (tocilizumab) as single-agent therapy (without other DMARDs) experienced a significantly greater improvement in disease activity (DAS28 score reduction) after 24 weeks compared to patients who received adalimumab as single-agent therapy.

Results from ADACTA showed that after 24 weeks of treatment patients with severe active RA and intolerance or inadequate response to MTX:

• achieved a mean improvement in disease activity (DAS28 score reduction) of 3.3 with RoActemra versus 1.8 with adalimumab;
• had a DAS28 remission rate of 40% with RoActemra versus 11% with adalimumab (DAS28 <2.6); and
• achieved ACR20, 50 and 702 responses of 65%, 47% and 33% with RoActemra versus 49%, 28% and 18% with adalimumab