Tens of thousands of patients crippled by rheumatoid arthritis can expect dramatic improvements in their treatment with the arrival of a new class of “smart” drugs, scientists said today.

A study of three medications has shown that they can reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, the debilitating joint disease, by about 50 per cent. Experts say the drugs will help liberate many sufferers with severe disease from pain and allow them to lead a near-normal life.

However, doubts remain over patients’ chances of getting the new drugs, which have yet to be approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the government watchdog, and could add around £250 million a year to the NHS drugs bill.

Britain lags behind other European countries and the US in introducing new medicines. Drugs launched in the past five years, including this new class, make up 27 per cent of the bill for medicines in the US, 24 per cent in Spain, 22 per cent in France, but 17 per cent in the UK.

Trials have shown that the three drugs – MabThera (rituximab), Orencia (abatacept), and tocilizumab – can have a marked impact on symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which include joint pain, stiffness and swelling. The disease, which occurs when the immune system attacks the joints, affects an estimated 400,000 people in the UK, 4,000 seriously. Each new drug consists of molecules that target different parts of the immune system.

MabThera and Orencia are licensed in the UK; the latter was launched this month, while tocilizumab is undergoing later-stage clinical trials. Professor Paul Emery, a leading British specialist and co-author of the review in today’s online edition of The Lancet, said: “They are strikingly effective and they work on different targets from the existing drugs, that’s the joy of it .”

The research showed that all three slowed progression of the disease and reduced its symptoms. All achieved the best results when used in combination with the standard treatment, methotrexate. Not all patients respond, and there can be serious side-effects in some, but 30 to 40 per cent of patients do see big improvements. Drugs that do not work for one patient may do so for another, enabling rheumatologists to tailor the treatment to the patient.

Scientists said that the new drugs would raise the chances further of patients finding an effective treatment. “A new era has started in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis,” Professor Josef Smolen, who led the team, said. Ailsa Bosworth, chief executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, said: “It means that we have some choices, and that’s very important if you are 22 and facing a lifetime of the disease.”

Traditional treatments include nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, glucocorticoid steroids, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

All have limited effectiveness, but treatment has greatly improved by the introduction of drugs that target tumour necrosis factor (TNF), a major source of the inflammation at the heart of the disease. Three antiTNF drugs are already licensed and approved by NICE for patients with severe disease.

The Lancet review focuses on the next generation of antibody medicines, which home in on targets other than TNF. MabThera targets immune system cells called B cells, which are known to be involved in the development of the disease. In trials it reduced symptoms by more that 50 per cent in more than a third of patients. Oren-cia targets immune system T cells and, when combined with methotrexate, also reduced symptoms by 50 per cent, in 40 per cent of patients.

Tocilixumab targets inter-leukin-6, a cytokine (signalling compound) that activates the T-cells. It is not yet licensed but in trials has shown similar benefits to the other two drugs.

With annual treatment costs per patient likely to be between £3,000 and £10,000, the cost of treating 40,000 patients (the number who have the disease sufficiently severely to get antiTNF drugs) is likely to be about £250 million.

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