UpdatesPlus-Rheumatoid Arthritis (April 2013)

In this month's 70 slide issue we provide Q1 sales figures for each of the biologics used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. We also offer fully up to date pipeline and clinical timelines as well as listings of key journal articles, some of which are analyzed in this issue

In our commercial section we offer sales details plus an overview of life cycle and regulatory events. This issue includes approval of sc (Ro)Actemra in Japan and NICE recommendation of early Orencia use. We analyze the negative CHMP opinion of Xeljanz suggesting reasons and possible paths forward for Pfizer

Our biosimilar tracker highlights breaking events of importance to rheumatoid arthritis including Cipla's launch of Etacept and possible sale of controlling Celltrion shares to a multinational

The pipeline has seen a number of key events including the release of more fostamatinib data. This has led to some analysts asking whether AZ will file. Read about our views on how AZ can turn fostamatinib into a success. The early pipeline continues to be dynamic - for example Infinity is aggressively advancing its PIK3 inhibitor while Galapagos has announced details on its Phase 2 DARWIN program

As usual we identify promising targets for the future and this month is no exception. We describe CTGF and IL-7 as targets and also report the efficacy of metformin

For further details and a full table of contents read our executive summary here