Radiopharmaceutical developer Navidea Biopharmaceuticals said that interim analysis of an ongoing phase IIB study shows positive results for the company's technetium-99m (Tc-99m) tilmanocept radiopharmaceutical in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Preliminary results on the first 11 patients indicate that quantitative Tc99m tilmanocept uptake in the hands and wrists of patients is proportional to the amount of macrophage involvement in an individual RA patient's joint inflammation.
Additionally, Tc99m tilmanocept uptake in RA-inflamed joints helped clinicians differentiate patients with the fibroid pathotype with low macrophage involvement from those having pathotypes of RA with higher macrophage involvement, the company said.
The primary objective of the study is to assess the relationship between joint-specific Tc-99m tilmanocept uptake values and the pathobiology of RA-involved joint tissue.
