Roche: Actemra Meets Endpoint In Arthritis In Children - Study

ZURICH -(Dow Jones)- Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) said Friday a study shows children with arthritis treated with Actemra showed fewer symptoms of the disease compared with those receiving a placebo.

MAIN FACTS:

- Roche said Actemra successfully met its primary endpoint in a paediatric study of systemic onset Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, or sJIA, by significantly improving disease signs and symptoms, a critical effectiveness measure of a sJIA treatment

- The outcome of Roche's so-called TENDER study is good news for children with this particularly aggressive type of juvenile arthritis. At the moment there are no approved therapies for sJIA, a disease which leads to significant illness with high-spiking fevers, arthritis, rashes, infections, and anaemia. SJIA also accounts for almost two-thirds of all deaths among children with arthritis with an overall mortality rate estimated to be between two to four percent.

- Results from the TENDER study showed that a greater proportion of patients treated with ACTEMRA benefited from a significant reduction in signs and symptoms after 12 weeks of therapy, compared to patients treated with placebo. In the TENDER study, ACTEMRA was generally well tolerated and the overall safety profile after 12 weeks of treatment was consistent with previously reported data from other studies.

 
   Company Web Site: http://www.roche.com 
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2009 01:22 ET (06:22 GMT)

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