Fostamatinib proven to be safe but not effective
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 13:50
in Health & Medicine
In a previous study, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who failed to respond to methotrexate were shown to experience positive results with fostamatinib disodium (R788), an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) inhibitor that is thought to block immune cell signalling involved with bone and cartilage destruction. In the current study, RA patients who failed to respond to biologic agents were studied. In contrast to the prior study, however, fostamatinib was not effective in this group of patients, although the drug did appear to be safe. Results of this phase II trial are published in the February issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)...