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Thousands of people living with younger forms of arthritis will soon benefit from a new drug approved by NHS health chiefs.
Seminal studies have found that the drug bimekizumab can dramatically reduce joint pain and swelling in people with a type of arthritis related to the skin condition psoriasis, known as psoriatic arthritis.
Separate research has found that it may also improve the debilitating symptoms of axial spondyloarthritis, known as axial SpA, another type of arthritis that causes pain and stiffness in the lower back when the joints become inflamed.
Bimekizumab is particularly effective for those who are resistant to other treatments and offers a crucial solution for patients who have run out of options.
Arthritis, which causes joint stiffness and pain, affects around ten million people in the UK. Most have osteoarthritis, which is caused by age-related wear and tear on the protective tissue within the knee, hip, and ankle joints. Other forms, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are caused by an overreaction of the immune system in which the body attacks its own healthy tissue, causing inflammation and pain.
PAINFUL: Psoriasis spots on reality star Kim Kardashian’s face
Psoriatic arthritis, which affects 100,000 people and develops in one in five with psoriasis, causes swollen, stiff and painful joints, as well as the characteristic patches of red, scaly skin. Both psoriatic arthritis and axial SpA, which affects another 220,000 people, have the same trigger in the immune system and can appear as early as childhood.
One famous patient is reality star Kim Kardashian, who was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2019 and last year revealed that it affected the movement of her hands.
Patients with both conditions start taking medications that suppress the immune system, such as methotrexate. But some struggle with side effects such as nausea and headaches, and the medications often stop working.
Patients can then try biologics, medications that block an immune protein that triggers inflammation. But in about half of the cases these medications also stop working after a couple of years. In one in ten patients they do not work at all.
Bimekizumab is already approved as a treatment for psoriasis, but last week the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, gave it the green light for both psoriatic arthritis and axial SpA. And last night health chiefs agreed to fund it for NHS patients in the coming weeks.
Administered as a monthly injection, bimekizumab blocks two inflammatory proteins simultaneously.
“It’s a much smarter drug,” says Professor Laura Coates, a rheumatologist at the University of Oxford. ‘We hope that patients will do better if more inflammation is blocked. “If you’re young and facing having this condition for the rest of your life, that’s really important.”
Professor Coates says the data so far show that bimekizumab is, on average, as effective as other drugs, but it worked particularly well in patients who did not respond to other treatments.
“Typically, patients who are more difficult to treat respond less well,” adds Professor Coates. “Therefore, while this needs to be analyzed further, it is encouraging and suggests that blocking both proteins could be particularly important for these patients.”
Seminal studies have found that the drug, bimekizumab, can dramatically reduce joint pain and swelling in people with a type of arthritis related to the skin condition psoriasis, known as psoriatic arthritis.
Laura Hoskin, 38, from Oxfordshire, was running out of options when she started taking bimekizumab as part of a trial in 2021.
The business consultant has suffered from psoriasis since she was in her early 20s and developed agonizing psoriatic arthritis eight years ago. But none of the treatments were working and she was getting desperate.
“I was in a terrible state,” Laura says. “I was newly married, but we decided not to have children because I kept dropping things; the idea that I might drop the baby tormented me.” Chronic pain is like a fire in the joints.’
Bimekizumab took effect a month after starting the trial.
“I felt less pain and there was less swelling,” he says. ‘I’ve been doing this for two years and, honestly, it has changed my life. I may not run ten miles, but I no longer have to doubt how I’ll feel each day.’
Professor Coates is looking for volunteers for a study into the links between psoriasis and arthritis. To participate visit hpos studio.