UC is a chronic disease affecting more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. and Europe for whom there is no medical cure. Currently, there are no other biologic therapies approved to treat moderate to severe UC. Characterized by inflammation and ulceration of the inner lining of the colon, UC symptoms can often include weight loss, severe sometimes uncontrollable bloody diarrhea, fatigue, and frequent abdominal pain. Alternative treatments are limited and, if conventional treatments do not control the progression of the disease, many patients may have to face surgical removal of the colon.

"Achieving and maintaining improvements over time are challenging goals in the treatment of ulcerative colitis, particularly in patients that do not respond to conventional medications such as steroids," said Paul Rutgeerts, MD, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, and lead investigator of the ACT 1 study. "REMICADE has, for several years, demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of Crohn's disease, and now has proven its ability to be an effective therapy for patients with ulcerative colitis, for which there are limited treatment options."

The efficacy of REMICADE in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease is well established in adults. First approved in 1998 for Crohn's disease (CD), REMICADE remains the only anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) therapy indicated for the treatment of moderately to severely active CD in patients who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy. Recently, REMICADE also became the only biologic approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for reducing signs and symptoms, achieving clinical remissio
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Contact: Michael Parks
215-325-4010
Centocor, Inc.
8-Dec-2005