CONSENSUS STATEMENT

Updated consensus statement on biological agents for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, 2008

D E Furst¹, E C Keystone², B Kirkham³, R Fleischmann⁴, P Mease⁵, F C Breedveld⁶, J S Smolen⁷, J R Kalden⁸, G R Burmester⁹, J Braun¹⁰, P Emery¹¹, K Winthrop¹², B Bresnihan¹³, F De Benedetti¹⁴, T Dörner¹⁵, A Gibofsky¹⁶, M H Schiff¹⁷, J Sieper¹⁸, N Singer¹⁹, P L C M Van Riel²⁰, M E Weinblatt²¹, M H Weisman²²

¹ University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
² University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
³ Rheumatology Department/ Guys Hospital, London, UK
⁴ University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Texas, USA
⁵ Seattle Rheumatology Associate, Seattle, USA
⁶ Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
⁷ 2nd Department of Medicine, Krankenhaus Lainz, and Department of Rheumatology, Internal Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
⁸ University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
⁹ Department of Rheumatology, Charite-University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
¹⁰ Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet, Germany
¹¹ Academic Unit of Musculoskeletal Disease, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, UK
¹² Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon, USA
¹³ Rheumatology Department, St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
¹⁴ Laboratorio di Reumatologia, IRCCS Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, Rome, Italy
¹⁵ Institut für Transfusionsmedizin, Klinische Hämostaseologie, Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
¹⁶ Rheumatology/Medicine Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York, USA
¹⁷ Denver Arthritis Clinic, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA
¹⁸ Department of Medicine/Rheumatology, Charite Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany
¹⁹ Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Rheumatology Division of Rheumatic Diseases, Department of Medicine Rainbow, Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
²⁰ University Hospital Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
²¹ Brigham and Womens Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
²² Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA

Correspondence to:
Professor D E Furst, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA – RM 32-59, 1000 Veteran Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA; defurst@mednet.ucla.edu

Accepted 2 September 2008

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

As in previous years, the consensus group to consider the use of biological agents in the treatment of rheumatic diseases met during the 10th Annual Workshop on Advances in Targeted Therapies. The group consisted of rheumatologists from a number of universities among the continents of Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia. Pharmaceutical industry support was obtained from a number of companies for the annual workshop itself but these companies had no part in the decisions about the specific programme or about the academic participants at this conference. Representatives of the supporting sponsors participated in the initial working groups with emphasis on supplying factual information. The sponsors did not participate in the drafting of the consensus statement.

This consensus was prepared from the perspective of the treating physician.

In view of the new data for tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blocking agents, B-cell-specific agents and interleukin 1 receptor antagonists . . . [Full text of this article]

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