Emery P, Fleischmann RM, Moreland LW et al. Arthritis Rheum 2009;60:2272–83.
In this study, golimumab was found to be effective in a population of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients naïve to methotrexate therapy, although the combination of golimumab and methotrexate was not superior to methotrexate alone in terms of the primary endpoint, a 50% improvement in American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA (ACR50 response) at 24 weeks.
Within the past 6 months, two additional tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists have been approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the US. In this study, the efficacy of one of these agents, golimumab, was evaluated in a population of patients who had never been treated with methotrexate.