PHARMACOTHERAPY FOR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN THE 21st CENTURY: FOCUS ON RITUXIMAB

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common and severe chronic inflammatory diseases. The paper reviews the recent studies evaluating the efficacy of rituximab (MabThera®), chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies in B cells, in patients with RA. It has been shown that Rituximab is an extremely effective and relatively safe drug for the treatment of RA and may be considered to be a prototype for a new line in the management of autoimmune diseases, the basis for which is B-cell immunity modulation.