New advances in the treatment of gout: review of pegloticase

dvances in the treatment of gout: review of pegloticase Review (8334) Total Article Views Authors: Mattheus K Reinders, Tim L Th A Jansen Published Date October 2010 Volume 2010:6 Pages 543 - 550 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S6043 Mattheus K Reinders1, Tim L Th A Jansen2 1Clinical Pharmacy, Atrium Medisch Centrum Parkstad, Heerlen, The Netherlands; 2Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Centre St. Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Abstract: Treatment-failure gout (TFG) affects approximately 50,000 patients or about 1% of the overall population of patients with gout in the United States of America. The severity of TFG is manifested by frequent acute attacks of disabling arthritis, chronic deforming joint disease, destructive masses of urate crystals (tophi), progressive physical disability, and poor health-related quality of life. Pegloticase (Krystexxa ; Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc), a novel PEGylated urate oxidase (uricase) enzyme, has been resubmitted for US Food and Drug Administration approval. In a 6-month, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 8 mg of pegloticase for every 2 weeks induced a lytic decrease of serum urate (sUr) concentrations, leading to dissolution of tophi in 40% of patients at final visit. However, 58% were nonresponders to the defined target sUr of 0.36 mmol/L (80% were nonresponders during months 3 and 6), possibly due to antibody formation. Also, 26%–31% experienced infusion reactions (IRs) and 77% suffered from gout flares. Although long-term data are awaited, an anti-inflammatory strategy, eg, based on glucocorticosteroids, is needed to prevent pegloticase antibody formation leading to IRs and diminished or shortened efficacy, and might also prevent gout flares. According to the current clinical data, pegloticase might have an important role as a (bridging) treatment in sUr-responsive patients for tophi clearance in severe chronic refractory gout.