Drug for Rheumatoid Arthritis Disappoints in Clinical Trial

A drug under development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has produced disappointing results in a clinical trial, according to an announcement from Genmab A/S.

The initial seven-week stage of the Phase II study of HuMax-CD4, involving 155 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis, showed no significant difference in results between patients receiving the drug in combination with methotrexate and those receiving a placebo.

Following these results, Genmab has opted to wind down its HuMAX-CD4 development program for rheumatoid arthritis. No more patients will be added to the ongoing Phase II rheumatoid arthritis study.

Also, no further patients will be recruited into the Phase III clinical trial in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who have failed to respond to treatment with TNF-alpha inhibitor therapies.

Genmab will gather data on patients already enrolled in the Phase III study and assess the difference between using HuMAX-CD4 in combination therapy with methotrexate versus HuMAX-CD4 alone. The study will also collect safety data on the patients.

Other sources: Genmab A/S