Roche And Biogen Idec (BIIB) Suspend Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Program

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG and Biogen Idec Inc (Nasdaq: BIIB) announced on Monday that safety concerns had caused them to suspend a program to treat rheumatoid arthritis with drug candidate ocrelizumab.

The independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board had found that the potential benefits of using ocrelizumab to treat rheumatoid arthritis were overshadowed by the risks after several cases of serious infections that led to death.

Because of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's tough stance on safety issues, the news from Roche and Biogen Idec was not too surprising, as the use of ocrelizumab in an earlier program to treat lupus was already halted over similar concerns.