Drug Fights Abnormal Openings in Crohn’s Disease

A drug that fights inflammation can help treat problems associated with the digestive-tract illness Crohn’s disease, medical researchers reported on Wednesday.

A drug that fights inflammation can help treat problems associated with the digestive-tract illness Crohn’s disease, medical researchers reported on Wednesday.Sustained use of the drug infliximab can help close abnormal openings in the bowel that appear in many people with Crohn’s, a long-term inflammation that can eat away the lining of the digestive tract, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.Infliximab is sold by Centocor Inc. in the United States under the brand name Remicade.The study found that prolonged treatment with the drug closed off the openings, called fistulas, and kept them closed in 36 percent of volunteers who received it every eight weeks.Fistulas appear in up to 43 percent of people with Crohn’s, and the stubbornness of the disease, which affects about half a million people in the United States, makes the openings difficult to treat.In contrast with the group receiving infliximab, the success rate was 19 percent among patients who got a placebo during the year-long study.However, the study only involved people who showed an initial response to the drug, and 31 percent did not.”The impact can be remarkable for those who do respond,” said author Bruce Sands of Massachusetts General Hospital.Infliximab is already prescribed to patients with severe cases of Crohn’s but no fistulas. The study was done at 45 medical centers in North America, Europe and Israel. Centocor, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, paid for the research, and at least 10 of the 18 researchers have financial ties to the company.(Source: Reuters Health, March 2004)