TY - JOUR T1 - Updated consensus statement on biological agents for the treatment of rheumatic diseases, 2009 JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - i2 LP - i29 DO - 10.1136/ard.2009.123885 VL - 69 IS - Suppl 1 AU - D E Furst AU - E C Keystone AU - R Fleischmann AU - P Mease AU - F C Breedveld AU - J S Smolen AU - J R Kalden AU - J Braun AU - B Bresnihan AU - G R Burmester AU - F De Benedetti AU - T Dörner AU - P Emery AU - A Gibofsky AU - A Kavanaugh AU - B Kirkham AU - M H Schiff AU - J Sieper AU - N Singer AU - P L C M Van Riel AU - M E Weinblatt AU - M H Weisman AU - K Winthrop Y1 - 2010/01/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/69/Suppl_1/i2.abstract N2 - As in previous years, the consensus group to consider the use of biological agents in the treatment of rheumatic diseases met during the 11th 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 to supply 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 abatacept,1 B-cell-specific agents,2 interleukin 1 receptor antagonists (IL1ra),3 tocilizumab (TCZ),4 and tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) blocking agents,5 an update of the previous consensus statement is appropriate. The consensus statement is annotated to document the credibility of the data supporting it as much as possible. This annotation is that of Shekelle et al and is described in the appendix.6 We have modified the Shekelle annotation by designating all abstracts as “category D evidence”, whether they describe well-controlled trials or not, as details of the study were often not available in the abstracts. Further, the number of possible references has become so large that reviews are sometimes included; if they contain category A references, they will be referred to as category A evidence.The rheumatologists and bioscientists who attended the consensus conference were from 23 countries, and were selected for their expertise in the use of biological agents for the treatment of rheumatic diseases. The number of attendees and participants was … ER -