Canakinumab Effective, Safe for Gouty Arthritis

Patients who were treated with canakinumab began to show significantly better pain reduction, compared with those who got triamcinolone within 12 hours after their first dose, and the advantage in pain relief continued each time the investigators measured pain during the first 7 days after treatment, Dr. So said. Neither Dr. So nor Dr. Schlesinger reported the results for this end point from the Beta-RELIEVED II trial.

The second primary end point was the percentage of patients having new flares during the first 12 weeks following their initial therapy. In the Beta-RELIEVED trial, 19% of the 115 patients who were treated with canakinumab and 37% of the 115 patients treated with triamcinolone had a new flare, a 55% relative risk reduction with canakinumab that was statistically significant. In the second trial, canakinumab use led to a 68% relative reduction in new flares, also a statistically significant difference in the study that randomized 226 patients, Dr. Schlesinger reported.

The canakinumab-treated patients also showed other signs of superior response in several secondary efficacy measures. Patients in the canakinumab group had a significant reduction in their mean number of flares, significantly less inflammation and swelling, and better suppression of inflammatory markers after 12 weeks, the researchers said.

In the safety analysis, canakinumab was associated with similar rates of all adverse events, a similar low rate of serious adverse events, and a similar low rate of adverse events leading to discontinuation, compared with patients who received triamcinolone.