Use of Mobic Approved for Rheumatoid Arthritis

German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim on Monday said U.S. regulators had widened the approved use of its arthritis drug to include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim on Monday said U.S. regulators had widened the approved use of its arthritis drug to include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.The drug, called Mobic, was launched in the United States in 2000 for treatment of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis in which joints are damaged by wear and tear.The privately held company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now approved the pill to treat and manage rheumatoid arthritis, the less-common hereditary form of arthritis that affects an estimated 2 million Americans.Unlike osteoarthritis, it is a hereditary condition in which the body’s own immune system becomes overactive and attacks joints, causing potentially crippling damage.Like aspirin and the widely used arthritis treatment naproxen, Mobic is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) — and can therefore cause ulcers and dangerous bleeding without warning if used with chronic use.For that reason, the FDA said patients should take doses of Mobic no greater than 15 milligrams once daily. Higher doses of the drug, whose chemical is meloxicam, have been linked to increased risk of bleeding.The Boehringer drug will compete with a wide range of NSAIDs, including a trio of medicines designed to minimize bleeding risk — Pfizer Inc.’s sister drugs Celebrex and Bextra and Merck & Co. Inc.’s Vioxx.Boehringer co-markets Mobic with Abbott Laboratories Inc., a drugmaker based in suburban Chicago.(Source: Reuters, August 2004)