Longterm treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with OM-8980. A retrospective study.

OM-8980 is an immunomodulating drug which has been shown in double blind placebo controlled trials to be effective in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). For this report, longterm information was collected from 32 patients (27 women, 5 men) with RA who had been treated for periods ranging from one to over 8 years with OM-8980 daily (median 5 years). Statistically significant reductions were observed in duration of morning stiffness, articular index, pain and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). An improvement or strong improvement in overall condition was noted in 23 patients. Adverse events were reported in only 3 patients and were minimal in nature. Our study demonstrates that OM-8980 is an effective longterm slow acting antirheumatic drug which has minimal adverse effects and should be considered to have a role to play in the management of RA.