Humira, a drug commonly given to adult patients to treat rheumatoid arthritis, has now been approved to treat similar ailments in juvenile patients. Abbott recently announced that they received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market Humira (adalimumab) as treatment to reduce the symptoms of moderately to severely active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in patients four years of age and older. This condition is commonly referred to as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) in the U.S.
JIA is the most chronic rheumatic disease in children with onset before 16. Symptoms include stiffness when awakening, limping, and joint swelling. It was once believed that children outgrow JIA, but it is now known that 25 to 70 percent still have JIA into adulthood.
Humira resembles antibodies normally found in the body and works by blocking tumor necrosis factor alpha, an inflammatory protein that, when produced in excess, plays a key role in the inflammatory responses in some autoimmune diseases.
The 48-week study of 171 children (four to 17 years old) found that fewer children treated with Humira experienced disease flare compared to placebo.
The most common side effects reported were injection site pain and injection site reaction. However, some severe adverse reactions were reported in the clinical trial, which included neutropenia, streptococcal pharyngitis, increased aminotransferases, herpes zoster, myositis, metrorrhagia and appendicitis.
JIA is the sixth disease approved for treatment with Humira since 2002.

Source: Abbott