Friday, January 3, 2014

DMARDs and a proposal for a new nomenclature



J. Smolen and other European rheumatologists published a paper in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases on proposing a new nomenclature of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
Just now we distinguish sDMARDs, synthetic or chemical DMARDs (also called traditional or conventional DMARDs) and biological DMARDs. 
The authors propose:
-  boDMARDs for biologic original DMARDs (abatacept, adalimumab, anakinra, certolizumab pegol, etanercept, golimumab, infliximab, rituximab or tocilizumab, and also emerging ones like clazakizumab, ixekizumab, sarilumab, secukinumab or sirukumab)
-  bsDMARDs for biosimilar DMARDs (in principle the above mentioned ones, more particularly for the time being etanercept, infliximab, and rituximab)
-  tsDMARDs for targeted DMARDs (small molecules, protein kinase inhibitors), die authors specify “those [DMARDs] that were specifically developed to target a particular molecular structure (such as tofacitinib, fostamatinib, baricitinib or apremilast, or agents not focused primarily on rheumatic diseases, such as imatinib or ibrutinib)”
-  csDMARDs for traditional DMARDs (methotrexate, sulfasalazine, leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine, gold salts, azathioprin, and others)

Let’s see where the discussion leads us! I would be happy with this more stringent nomenclature.


Smolen JS, van der Heijde D, Machold KP, Aletaha D, Landewé R. : Proposal for a new nomenclature of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
Ann Rheum Dis. 2014 Jan 1;73(1):3-5. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204317. Epub 2013 Sep 26.

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