Tocilizumab biosimilar for treating moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis

Tocilizumab biosimilar is in clinical development for the treatment of moderate to severe, active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is an autoimmune disease which means the immune system mistakenly attack the cells that line your joints, which makes them swollen, stiff and painful. This can affect and damage nearby bones and tissue. The causes of RA are not clearly known but there is an increased risk associated with women, having a family history of RA, or smoking. Symptoms vary but include joint pain, swelling around joint(s) and stiffness. General symptoms include feeling extremely tired, flu-like symptoms and weight loss. A biosimilar medicine is a biological medicine which has not shown any clinically meaningful differences in quality, safety, and efficacy from the reference medicine. Increasing the availability of biosimilar medicines allows the National Health Service to take advantage of up to £300m of savings each year, enabling more patients to have access to other life-saving and life-enhancing treatments.