Update From the Front Lines of the War on Rheumatoid Arthritis: Part 2

Janssen Pharmaceutical’s War on RA, November 3, 2016: To gain perspective on the war on rheumatoid arthritis from the point of view of a researcher, I spoke with Dan Baker, MD, Disease Area Leader, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Immunology Therapeutic Area, Janssen Research & Development, LLC.

Dr. Baker provided detailed responses to five questions about the development of biologic medications for RA. Janssen is the manufacturer developer of SIMPONI ARIA^® (golimumab) infusion, SIMPONI^® (golimumab) and REMICADE^® (infliximab), which are  widely used medications in the treatment of RA.

I am pleased to offer Dr. Baker’s responses here:

How do research molecules get prioritized in the research and development (R&D) process? In other words, how are new treatments proposed? Is it driven by potential market size, promise of a treatment, past results?

Each Therapeutic Area within Janssen Research & Development is committed to advancing treatments for patients according to focused disease areas and continued unmet needs in these diseases. For the Immunology Therapeutic Area, these disease areas include inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), rheumatoid arthritis (captures rheumatologic diseases like psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis) and psoriasis.

Many of our scientists/researchers have experience working with and treating patients based on past practice and clinical experience, which I believe makes a difference in how we approach clinical development and keeping the needs of the patient front and center in everything that we do. Ongoing efforts to understand disease processes and identify new targets, together with several decades of experience in the discovery and development of therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, is the approach that we take to bringing forward new treatment options and solutions for patients which might take the form of biologic or small molecule medicines, as well as diagnostic and biomarker approaches, etc.

To read more of this post check out CreakyJoints post: Update From the Front Lines of the War on Rheumatoid Arthritis: Part 2

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