New Insight with Dr. Veeral Sheth

Don’t Miss a Beat

Crisis Point

Victoria Johnson joined the MJH Life Sciences in 2020 and has written for NeurologyLive, CGTLive, and now HCPLive. You can reach her at vjohnson@mjhlifesciences.com

Over the last decade, the landscape of respiratory care has undergone a dramatic transformation, driven by advances in the understanding of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathophysiology and the emergence of 

. Where treatment once centered largely on inhaled corticosteroids and bronchodilators, the field has entered a new era defined by phenotypic precision, biomarker-driven strategies, and earlier, more tailored intervention. For clinicians and patients alike, this progress has shifted expectations for disease control and long-term outcomes, particularly in populations that previously had few effective options.

In asthma, the approvals of biologics like dupilumab (Dupixent), benralizumab (Fasenra), and most recently tezepelumab (Tezspire) have allowed treatment to move beyond allergen or eosinophil-based models toward broader and more inclusive criteria. Tezepelumab’s 2021 FDA approval, in particular, marked a turning point as the first biologic approved for severe asthma regardless of baseline eosinophil count.

 These developments have redefined what “uncontrolled” asthma means and raised the bar for treatment goals—including reduced exacerbation rates, improved lung function, and steroid-sparing potential. As a result, allergists and pulmonologists are increasingly aligned in a shared, multidisciplinary approach to asthma management, focused on identifying the right therapy for the right patient as early as possible.

COPD, historically considered less amenable to targeted therapy, has begun to follow a similar trajectory. In 2024, dupilumab became the first biologic approved for eosinophilic COPD in the US, signaling new therapeutic possibilities in a field where treatment had long stagnated.

 At the same time, a growing understanding of COPD endotypes and inflammatory mechanisms is prompting a reevaluation of how the disease is diagnosed and managed. These changes are leading to greater overlap in how clinicians think about asthma and COPD care and are presenting new challenges in integrating advanced therapeutics into real-world workflows.

To explore these evolving questions and clinical implications, HCPLive convened a clinical forum event featuring expert perspectives from pulmonologists and allergists at the forefront of respiratory care, led by Igor Barjaktarevic, MD, PhD, Director of Bedside ultrasound and Medical Director of Liver-transplant Intensive Care Units at Ronald Reagan Medical Center, and Medical Director of COPD at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA).

The panelists discussed how asthma is now widely accepted as a heterogeneous disease, with type 2 inflammation (especially eosinophilic) being the most actionable phenotype for biologic intervention. They touched on biomarkers such as eosinophils, IgE, and FENO as being essential, though imperfect, tools for guiding therapy. They also emphasized increasing interest in personalized combinations or early biologic use in difficult-to-treat asthma.

“If you pick the right biomarker, it's not just a number. It's actually a target and something that you can follow over time to ascertain if the disease state is improving. So, I think a couple of points there I would kind of solidify is that we now know that asthma is heterogeneous. You see a lot of patients with shortness of breath, chest tightness, wheezing, and cough. If you zoom in, they do not have the same inflammatory state, and if you're able to find a biomarker to hone in on which kind of inflammation is going on, you can just identify that patient and find a target,” Lorraine Anderson, MD, allergist-immunologist at UCLA said.

Moving on to COPD, they acknowledged that it is even more heterogeneous than asthma and is now recognized to include a significant subset of patients with eosinophilic inflammation who benefit from therapies traditionally used in asthma. Dupilumab and mepolizumab both show efficacy in patients with ≥300 eosinophils/μL, but their relative positioning and long-term roles are still debated. Biomarker development remains a challenge, with limited predictive reliability and interference from factors like smoking.

“Asthma is in young population. COPD is usually in the older population. So that's a big difference in terms of inflammation. They're far gone. So, then you feel the rush to reverse, which sometimes is not reversible. Asthma, you want to prevent chronic steroid use because they're in a young age. So, I think inflammation is very different in the 2 diseases,” participants said.

They also touched on bronchiectasis, asthma-COPD overlap, and fixed obstruction in non-smokers, and looked forward to upcoming research into biologics' potential in these settings.

“We’re seeing more bronchiectasis because it's being identified. These people were being labeled as chronic bronchitis before COPD. And so, and there is one phenotype of COPD in bronchiectasis, right? There is the COPD patient with bronchiectasis, that's one of the many potential etiologies of bronchiectasis, right? But yes, it's a hot topic right now because we're going to finally have a targeted drug specifically for bronchiectasis,” participants said.

Overall, the participants emphasized that biologics and personalized medicine, especially biomarker-guided approaches, are growing in importance across conditions, although the field must keep in mind the limits of current trial designs and the gap between real-world patients and study populations.

FDA Approves Tezspire™ (Tezepelumab-ekko) in the U.S. for Severe Asthma. News release. Amgen. December 17, 2021. 

https://www.amgen.com/newsroom/press-releases/2021/12/fda-approves-tezspire-tezepelumabekko-in-the-us-for-severe-asthma

Dupixent® (dupilumab) Approved in the U.S. as the First-ever Biologic Medicine for Patients with COPD. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. September 27, 2024. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/09/27/2954552/0/en/Dupixent-dupilumab-Approved-in-the-U-S-as-the-First-ever-Biologic-Medicine-for-Patients-with-COPD.html.

Articles

Advancements in respiratory care have significantly transformed asthma and COPD management, emphasizing phenotypic precision and biomarker-driven strategies. The introduction of biologics like dupilumab, benralizumab, and tezepelumab has expanded treatment options, particularly for severe asthma and eosinophilic COPD. These developments have redefined disease control expectations and fostered a multidisciplinary approach to care. Despite progress, challenges remain in biomarker reliability and integrating advanced therapies into clinical practice. The field continues to explore personalized medicine's potential, especially in conditions like bronchiectasis and asthma-COPD overlap.

Explore the latest advancements in biologic therapies for asthma and COPD discussed in a recent clinical forum highlighting personalized medicine and biomarker-driven strategies for improved patient outcomes.

News

news page, resources on the topics of disease- and specialty-specific medical news and expert insight can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on health care research, treatment, and drug development.

Asthma

The HCPLive asthma page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on asthmatic disease. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for allergic and severe asthma, and more.

Pulmonology

Infectious Disease condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on respiratory health. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, COVID-19, and more.

COPD

COPD condition center page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on COPD research, treatment, and drug development.

Clinical

clinical page is a resource for content on every specialty, disease, and topic available on our medical news site.

Biologics and Beyond: Clinical Perspectives on Managing Complex Airway Inflammation

Classifying Obesity as a Chronic Disease with W. Timothy Garvey, MD

 in Philadelphia, PA, W. Timothy Garvey, MD, professor and university professor, Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama in Birmingham and director of UAB Diabetes Research Center in Birmingham, Alabama, presented the results of the Lancet Commission on Obesity and how these findings will influence the treatment of 

Given the limitations surrounding BMI measurement of obesity, the Lancet Commission aimed to better define obesity as a condition of illness that comes as a direct result of excess adiposity and its effect on the function of tissues and organs. The Commission initially intended to establish specific criteria for diagnosis, thereby facilitating further therapeutic interventions and public health strategies.

Garvey spoke on several of the contributions he believed were made by the Commission during the process, namely the indication of the various complications of obesity that were used to qualify it as a disease. He noted lymphedema, intracranial pressure, 

heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

, and arterial pressure, among others, as being directly caused by excess adiposity.

“These are complications that are integral to the state of excess adiposity,” Garvey told 

. “And what stronger statement is there that obesity is a disease when you can link it to these types of changes in function and structure of organs that produce symptoms?”

Garvey also spoke on the Commission’s development of a separate category of obesity-related diseases. These were described as diseases whose pathophysiology can overlap with the defined components of obesity. He gave the example of 

“So, on the obesity side, you have obesity-induced insulin resistance, but patients have to have a decreased insulin secretory capacity in order to produce hyperglycemia and overt diabetes,” Garvey said. “It required a defect in insulin secretion as well as obesity-induced insulin resistance. So that’s an example of an obesity-related disease.”

Notably, one of the Commission’s core decisions proved to be rather controversial in the medical sphere. Garvey expounded on this, explaining the difference drawn between preclinical and clinical obesity as defined by the Lancet Commission. This decision separated the notion of obesity as a risk factor from the actual diseases it can facilitate, establishing it as a disease in its own right.

“Well, preclinical obesity is a state of excess adiposity without complications,” Garvey told 

. “Patients can be active, they feel fine, they can be exercising every day, be productive individuals in society, even though they have excess body weight. It is a state of increased risk.”

Garvey noted that preclinical obesity still requires evaluation, counseling, and eventually some form of intervention, given that it could progress to clinical obesity at any time. However, Garvey did state that not all patients with preclinical obesity need aggressive therapies in the same way as patients with clinical obesity.

“If you have complications or obesity-related diseases, that tells you that the adiposity that’s presented is harming the health of the person, and now therapy is clearly warranted – medication, bariatric surgery, lifestyle intervention, etc,” Garvey said. “We treat the disease with weight loss, not just to lose X amount of pounds, but to achieve sufficient weight loss to prevent or treat the complications that might arise.”

Garvey expressed his interest in the studies that have been undertaken in response to the Commission. He hopes that the field is moving in the direction of preventative measures and treatment, given the new mentality of obesity as a chronic disease.

“I think we’ve seen this complication-centric approach to care is now being integrated into phase 3 development programs for new pharmaceutical medications,” Garvey said. “I think that’s where the field is going, and I think it’s a good thing we’re now treating obesity as a disease. Obesity is now on par with the way we treat other chronic diseases as well.”

Garvey reports the following disclosures: Boehringer-Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Merck & Co., Inc., Neurovalens, Fractyl Health, Inc., and others.

Garvey W. The Lancet Commission on Obesity. Presented at the 9

 Annual Heart in Diabetes Conference in Philadelphia, PA, June 6-8, 2025.

Rubino F, Cummings DE, Eckel RH, et al. Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity [published correction appears in Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2025 Mar;13(3):e6. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(25)00006-3.]. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2025;13(3):221-262. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(24)00316-4

Videos

The recent Lancet Commission on Obesity has repositioned the former risk factor as a disease, indicating and emphasizing a variety of complications.

Conference

 conference coverage page features articles, videos, and expert-led live coverage from major medical meetings throughout the year.

Cardiology

Cardiology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for heart disease and cardiovascular events, as well as associated diabetes, renal failure, and more...

Endocrinology

The HCPLive endocrinology page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on endocrine system conditions. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for diabetes, hormonal disease, and more.

Obesity Management

Obesity Management condition center page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into clinical weight management can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on obesity research, treatment, and drug development.

Abigail Brooks is an assistant editor for 

She joined MJH Life Sciences in August 2023 shortly after graduating from Monmouth University where she earned her BA in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations/Journalism and later an MA in Interactive Digital Media. She enjoys traveling, running, and reading books. She can be reached at abrooks@mjhlifesciences.com.

Credit: Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes

 treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) is associated with a reduced risk of several extrahepatic manifestations (EHMs), according to findings from a recent study.

Leveraging data from the BC Hepatitis Testers Cohort, the study found successful DAA treatment leading to sustained virologic response (SVR) was linked to lower risks of 

, major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and neurocognitive disorders, but not 

According to the World Health Organization, globally, an estimated 50 million people have chronic HCV infection, with about 1 million new infections occurring per year. Although there is no effective vaccine against HCV, DAAs can cure more than 95% of persons with infection.

“Studies following the advent of DAAs suggested that HCV cure achieved through DAA treatment may be associated with reduction of EHMs,” Naveed Zafar Janjua, MBBS, DrPH, an executive director of data and analytic services at the BC Centre for Disease Control and a clinical associate professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues wrote, describing inherent limitations to existing research and a lack of data on certain extrahepatic manifestations.

 “To advance our understanding of the protective effects of DAAs against extrahepatic manifestations, it is critical to assess diverse extrahepatic manifestations, particularly within large, population-based cohorts.”

Seeking to address these gaps in research, investigators conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study using data from the BC Hepatitis Testers Cohort, which includes > 1,300,000 people tested for HCV in British Columbia between 1990 and 2015. The study population included individuals diagnosed with chronic HCV by March 2020. Investigators matched people treated with DAAs to those who were never treated by the year of their first HCV RNA diagnosis, within a 12-month time frame, in a 1:1 ratio without replacement using prescription-time distribution matching.

SVR was determined by a negative HCV RNA test ≥ 10 weeks post treatment. Individuals were classified as treated and SVR, treated and no SVR, or untreated.

Investigators categorized EHMs into 5 groups:

Hospitalized stroke, including hemorrhagic, ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack

MACE, including acute myocardial infarction, angina, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, coronary artery bypass graft, and stroke

Neurocognitive disorders, including dementia, delirium, and Alzheimer disease

Among the 22,576 individuals included in the study, the mean age at HCV diagnosis was 42.0 (Standard deviation, 12.0) years and the majority of the cohort was male (66.2%). In total, 1953 patients received DAA treatment and achieved SVR, 386 received treatment but did not achieve SVR, and 10,237 never received treatment.

While there were no statistically significant differences in EHM prevalence among those who achieved SVR versus those who did not, incident cases varied. Among the overall study population, individuals in the untreated group and those in the treated and no SVR group had greater incident rates of EHMs compared with those who were in the treated and SVR group, except for type 2 diabetes.

The incidence rates per 1000 person-years in untreated versus treated with SVR groups were as follows:

CKD/ESKD: 21.0 (95% CI, 19.0-23.1) vs 14.7 (95% CI, 13.4-16.1)

Stroke: 8.9 (95% CI, 7.7-10.2) vs 6.3 (95% CI, 5.5-7.2)

MACE: 26.7 (95% CI, 24.5- 29.1) vs 19.3 (95% CI, 17.8-20.9)

Neurocognitive disorders: 19.2 (95% CI, 17.3-21.2) vs 10.3 (95% CI, 9.2-11.5)

Type 2 diabetes: 6.4 (95% CI, 5.4-7.7) vs 9.2 (95% CI, 8.1-10.4)

After adjusting for confounders, investigators found successful HCV treatment with DAA was associated with reduced risks of incident CKD/ESKD (adjusted cause-specific hazard ratio [acsHR], 0.54; 95% CI, 0.47-0.63), stroke (acsHR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.54-0.81), MACE (acsHR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.52-0.66), and neurocognitive disorders (acsHR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.45-0.66) compared with no treatment. Of note, type 2 diabetes risk was not reduced (acsHR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.84-1.29).

“The potential extrahepatic benefits of HCV treatment highlighted in this study provide additional rationale for enhanced efforts to identify and overcome barriers to care, including reducing stigma, increasing clinician awareness, addressing socioeconomic challenges, and implementing innovative care models to improve overall health of people affected by HCV,” investigators concluded.

Jeong D, Wong S, Karim ME, et al. Direct-Acting Antivirals and Risk of Hepatitis C Extrahepatic Manifestations. 

World Health Organization. Hepatitis C. Newsroom. April 9, 2024. Accessed June 12, 2025. 

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c

Successful treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) significantly reduces the risk of several extrahepatic manifestations (EHMs) such as chronic kidney disease, stroke, major adverse cardiac events, and neurocognitive disorders. However, it does not impact the risk of type 2 diabetes. The study utilized data from the BC Hepatitis Testers Cohort, highlighting the importance of addressing barriers to care and enhancing treatment access. The findings underscore the broader health benefits of achieving sustained virologic response (SVR) through DAA therapy.

Successful HCV treatment with DAAs was associated with reduced risks of CKD, stroke, major adverse cardiac events, and neurocognitive disorders.

Hepatology

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into HCV can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on hepatitis C virus research, treatment, and drug development.

Successful HCV Treatment with DAAs Linked to Lower Extrahepatic Manifestation Risk

Dual Agonists and Upstream Obesity Treatment with Kausik Ray, FMedSci

 in Philadelphia, PA, Kausik Ray, FMedSci, the immediate past president of the European Atherosclerosis Society, director of the Imperial Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and the Imperial Clinical Trials Unit-Global, and professor of public health and honorary consultant cardiologist at the Imperial College London, discussed the future of dual receptor agonists in treating 

Dual receptor agonists, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, have become wildly popular in both the medical and consumer field. With obesity prevalence rapidly increasing in the US, more dual agonist treatments are being developed to target every stage of the disease, from lipid production to glycemia and metabolism regulation. Dual receptor agonists are now being repurposed in an attempt to prevent the causes of obesity rather than the effects.

Ray discussed the various approaches currently in use to treat everything from abnormal lipid counts to obesity insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. In the past, clinicians have typically employed a “downstream” method of treatment, targeting triglyceride abnormalities. Ray also acknowledged the diminishing returns that this method provides.

“So, we know, for example, that if you change triglycerides, you lower them by about 25%, and let’s say that doesn’t result in APOV or LDL lowering, then you’re not changing clearance, you’re just remodeling, and that doesn’t reduce cardiovascular outcomes,” Ray told 

. “So, people have moved towards using newer agents, like ANGPTL3.”

These dual receptor agonists, a category that also includes GLP-1 receptor agonists, typically target the APOV pool. As a result, they have an effect on VLDL particles and can influence many of the outcomes of obesity in addition to its symptoms.

“So, we showed, for example, that if you target ANGPTL3 with a drug called solbinsiran, for example, you reduce not only those anthrogenic lipids, but you actually also reduce fatty liver,” Ray said. “I’m mentioning that because we know that fatty liver, MASLD, is associated with obesity and insulin resistance.”

This, Ray suggests, is the alternative “upstream” treatment by which clinicians can take out the underlying cause of these diseases – insulin resistance – and thereby treat the mechanism for obesity and all its related conditions.

“So, what we think that these drugs probably do is improve insulin sensitivity, to reduce the LDL production,” Ray said. “And then also through maybe changing ANGPTL3 and some of these other regulatory proteins in the triglyceride pathway, they probably then help that remodeling to a favorable lipid profile.”

Ray also spoke about upcoming dual agonists in the pipeline and their chances of breaking the cycle between obesity and dyslipidemia. Ray explained that most give a roughly 20% weight loss.

“We saw this trend with the single agonist, but they have less weight loss,” Ray said. “And so, it’s possible that you need a much bigger weight loss to try and break that cycle. And then we have the triple agonist coming down the pipeline, which gives an even bigger opportunity to test this.”

Ultimately, Ray expressed an interest in future trials, possibly combining dual receptor agonists with other medications to expand the impact on lipids.

“I think what I’d be interested in is to see what the effect is of combination therapy with an ANGPTL3 and one of these dual agonists on fatty liver disease, on lipids, for example,” Ray said. “Is it a gain of a doubling, for example? Because if that is the case, we’ve got some really powerful treatments for these people.”

Ray K. Obesity and Dyslipidemia – Can We Finally Break the Cycle with Dual Agonists. Presented at the 9

 Annual Heart in Diabetes Conference in Philadelphia, PA, June 6-8 2025.

Rodriguez R, Hergarden A, Krishnan S, et al. Biased agonism of GLP-1R and GIPR enhances glucose lowering and weight loss, with dual GLP-1R/GIPR biased agonism yielding greater efficacy. Cell Rep Med. Published online May 30, 2025. doi:10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102156

By targeting insulin resistance at its source, dual receptor agonists may have a more efficient method of tackling the growing obesity problem, as well as its cardiovascular effects.

A new post-hoc analysis of the MITIGATE trial, a pivotal trial for the approval of inebilizumab for people with IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), supports the use of the therapy across various demographic subgroups of the disease.

European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Congress 2025 

in Barcelona, Spain, taking place June 11-14, 2025.

“IgG4-RD is a progressive, systemic, fibroinflammatory disease characterized by unpredictable and recurring flares, leading to organ damage and decreased quality of life. The disease can affect nearly any organ,” lead investigators John H. Stone, MD, MPH, principal investigator, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Edward A. Fox Chair in Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues wrote in their abstract.

MITIGATE (NCT04540497) is an international, randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial that evaluates the safety and efficacy of inebilizumab as treatment for IgG4-RD. Inebilizumab is a humanized, glycoengineered, CD19-directed, B-cell depleting monoclonal antibody that was approved by the FDA under the name Uplizna as the first and only treatment for adult patients with IgG4-RD in April 2025.

The trial enrolled 135 adult participants who met the ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for IgG4-RD with a score ≥20 who had a history of multiorgan IgG4-RD and had experienced an IgG4-RD flare that required glucocorticoid treatment during the screening period. The trial stratified participants by first or subsequent IgG4-RD manifestation to account for potential differences in flare risk and randomized them 1:1 to inebilizumab (n = 68) or placebo (n = 67). Treatments took place on day 1, day 15, and week 26 of the 1-year randomized controlled period (RCP).

The trial’s primary end point was time to first adjudication committee (AC)-determined and investigator-treated IgG4-RD flare during the RCP. It also evaluated key secondary endpoints including annualized flare rate during the RCP and the proportion of participants achieving flare-free, treatment-free complete remission or flare-free, corticosteroid-free complete remission at Week 52. Investigators also evaluated safety.

The trial’s 2 treatment groups had generally well balanced baseline demographics. Participants had a mean age of 58.2 years in the study, with 31.1% of participants aged 65 years or older, and 34.8% of participants were female, consistent with the known male predominance of of IgG4-RD. A total of 46.7% of participants were Asian, 39.3% were White, and 7.4% did not report. The remaining 6.6% of participants consisted of Black, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, unknown or other races.

The investigators found that inebilizumab treatment significantly reduced the risk of flare relative to placebo regardless of age, sex, or race, with each subgroup exhibiting a hazard ratio similar to the overall study population, and consistent trends were observed across all regions.

They also found that inebiliuzmab reduced annualized flare rates relative to placebo in all demographic subgroups. Similar results were observed for all subgroups with sufficient representation for the proportion of participants achieving flare-free, treatment-free complete remission or flare-free, corticosteroid-free complete remission at Week 52. Furthermore, safety findings were similar in each subgroup to that observed in the overall population.

Stone JH, Culver EL, Khosroshahi A, et al. Safety and Efficacy of Inebilizumab in IgG4-Related Disease Across Various Participant Demographics: Subgroup Analysis from the MITIGATE Study. Presented at: EULAR Congress 2025; Barcelona, Spain; June 11-14. Presentation #OP0189

The post-hoc analysis of the MITIGATE trial supports the efficacy and safety of inebilizumab for treating IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) across diverse demographic subgroups. The trial, a Phase 3 international, randomized, placebo-controlled study, demonstrated that inebilizumab significantly reduced the risk of disease flares compared to placebo, regardless of age, sex, or race. The treatment also decreased annualized flare rates and increased the proportion of patients achieving complete remission. Safety profiles were consistent across all subgroups, aligning with the overall study population.

Inebilizumab was approved by the FDA under the name Uplizna as the first and only treatment for adult patients with IgG4-RD in April 2025

Rheumatology

Rheumatology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on rheumatologic disease. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for arthritis, gout, nr-AxSpA, and more.

Inebilizumab Efficacy and Safety Consistent Across Demographic Subgroups of IgG4-RD

In this interview with Milaan Shah, MD, the expert consensus panel reviewing deucravacitinib’s safety and efficacy for psoriasis is discussed.

Plaque Psoriasis

The HCPLive plaque psoriasis page is a resource for medical news and expert insights on psoriasis. This page features expert-led coverage, articles, videos and research on the therapies and development of treatments for psoriatic disease, and more.

Dermatology

The HCPLive dermatology page is a resource for medical news and expert insights on skin disease. This page features expert-led coverage, articles, videos and research on the therapies and development of treatments for dermatologic conditions, and more.

Efficacy, Safety of Deucravacitinib for Psoriasis, with Milaan Shah, MD

Use of an AI-guided infection prevention bundle did not significantly reduce CDI incidence but was associated with increased antimicrobial stewardship.

Gastroenterology

Gastroenterology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on digestive and GI conditions. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for 

, IBS and IBD, Crohn's disease, and more.

C Difficile Infection

C. difficile condition center page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into Clostridium difficile can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on C. diff research, treatment, and drug development.

AI Tool Shows Promise for Antimicrobial Stewardship, C Diff Prevention in Hospitals

Lana Pine is the editor of HCPLive Rheumatology. She is an experienced editor and technical writer with a demonstrated history of working in the banking and publishing industries. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, yoga, listening to podcasts, and drawing. She can be reached via email at LPine@mjhlifesciences.com.

Delayed specialist referral can result in decades of unnecessary pain and joint damage for patients with gout.

Gout

On the HCPLive gout page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into gouty arthritis can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on gout, and more.

Two Gout Journeys That Reveal the Cost of Delayed Specialist Care

Gout should be treated as a chronic disease, not just an episodic flare condition.

Jeff Peterson, MD, on Reframing Gout as a Chronic Disease

Medication adherence, access, and comorbidity management are critical to achieving target uric acid levels.

Personalizing Gout Management, with Priya Reddy, MD

Elevated uric acid is modifiable, and long-term remission is attainable with appropriate pharmacologic and lifestyle interventions.

Treating Gout as a Systemic and Emotional Disease, with Peter Hennis, NP

Gout is a systemic metabolic disease requiring proactive, individualized treatment plans beyond dietary modification.

Managing Gout Beyond the Flare: Clinical Insights for Sustained Control

Gout and CKD share a bidirectional relationship that complicates management and demands multidisciplinary care.

Rethinking Gout in Chronic Kidney Disease


Uncontrolled gout is a progressive, genetically driven, systemic condition that requires individualized, evidence-based urate-lowering therapy and close clinical monitoring.

Uncontrolled Gout Demands More Than Standard Dosing, with Brittany Panico, DO

New findings reveal upadacitinib's effectiveness in treating giant cell arteritis, highlighting reduced infection rates with shorter glucocorticoid tapering.

Latest News

Biologics and Beyond: Clinical Perspectives on Managing Complex Airway Inflammation

Classifying Obesity as a Chronic Disease with W. Timothy Garvey, MD

Successful HCV Treatment with DAAs Linked to Lower Extrahepatic Manifestation Risk

Dual Agonists and Upstream Obesity Treatment with Kausik Ray, FMedSci

Inebilizumab Efficacy and Safety Consistent Across Demographic Subgroups of IgG4-RD