New Crohn's Disease Drug Shows Promise

Studies suggest certolizumab pegol may be effective option for patients.

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

WEDNESDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- A new drug against Crohn's disease may be of real help to people who don't respond well to existing medications, two new studies show.

Certolizumab pegol, which works in a similar fashion to standard medicines, isn't on the market yet and hasn't been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Still, "it may at some time offer another option for patients," said University of Louisville associate professor of medicine Dr. Gerald W. Dryden Jr., who studies Crohn's disease and is familiar with the new research.

Crohn's disease causes inflammation in the intestines and other parts of the body. It typically causes cramps and diarrhea, and other symptoms are possible.

In the United States, young people in their 20s and 30s seem to be most susceptible, but scientists appear to be far from fully understanding the disease.

Prednisone, a steroid that dampens the immune system, is often the first line of treatment, Dryden said. In moderate-to-severe cases, doctors often turn to two drugs that appear to tinker with a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha, which has also been linked to the inflammation caused by the disease.

The introduction of the first anti-TNF drug, infliximab (Remicade), revolutionized the treatment of Crohn's disease, wrote Dr. James Lewis, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, in a commentary accompanying the two studies. Another drug, adalimumab (Humira), is now available.

The problem? They can both cause side effects. Also, "none of the currently available medications are effective at inducing remission in all patients," Lewis said in an interview. "Even the most effective medications typically induce a sustained remission in well less than 50 percent of patients."

That forces many patients to turn to surgery.

Enter the new drug, certolizumab pegol, which is being developed by the pharmaceutical company UCB Pharma. The company helped pay for the two new studies, which are published in the July 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.