Enbrel’s prescribing information will now have a black box warning to highlight the small but potentially serious risk of infections, including tuberculosis.
In U.S. and Canadian clinical trials, the rate of tuberculosis infection has been roughly 0.007% of patients, or about 1 in 14,000 cases; but in actual practice, rare cases of tuberculosis have been seen in patients using tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors like Enbrel, Remicade and Humira.
It’s a good reminder that patients should be screened for active and latent TB before beginning anti-TNF psoriasis treatments and periodically during treatment.
Category: Biologics, Treatment
Tags: Enbrel, etanercept
