BRIGHTON, England -- Early treatment with abatacept (Orencia) plus methotrexate was associated with high rates of disease remission among methotrexate-naive rheumatoid arthritis patients in a two-year multinational study, investigators said here.
After one year of treatment, 46.1% (95% CI 39.7 to 52.5%) of patients randomized to abatacept plus methotrexate were in remission, compared with 26.9% (95% CI 21.1 to 32.6) of those receiving methotrexate alone, according to Rene Westhovens, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues.
And after two years, 55.2% (95% CI 48.8 to 61.6) of patients receiving the biologic drug in combination with methotrexate were in remission, the investigators reported in a poster session at the annual meeting of the British Society for Rheumatology here.
Abatacept is a selective T-cell co-stimulation modulator that currently is recommended for use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have not responded to treatment with conventional disease-modifying drugs or tumor necrosis factor inhibitors.
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