Canakinumab for the Patient With Difficult-to-Treat Gouty Arthritis: Review of the Clinical Evidence

Many patients with gouty arthritis experience frequent flares and have comorbidities that may limit their anti-inflammatory treatment options for acute flare management. For patients with contraindications to both NSAIDs and/or colchicine, treatment options are particularly limited, and there is an unmet medical need in this subgroup of patients. Two phase 3 studies and their extensions have demonstrated that a single dose of canakinumab during an acute flare provided rapid and effective pain relief and prolonged suppression of flares and inflammation in patients with a history of frequent flares and contraindicated for, intolerant of, or unresponsive to NSAIDs and/or colchicine. Canakinumab was consistently superior to the active comparator triamcinolone acetonide and was generally well tolerated in this patient population with a high prevalence of multiple medical comorbidities. Canakinumab should therefore be considered as a treatment option in a target population of patients with frequent gouty arthritis attacks who are unable to use NSAIDs and colchicine and in whom frequent use of corticosteroids is not considered appropriate. (C) 2015 Societe francaise de rhumatologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.