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Have you responded well to Cimzia?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 12/9/2009 2:50 AM (GMT 0)
I hit the 3 month mark on Cimzia this week and haven't been impressed with it. While my joint pain is almost gone, my gut pain is getting increasingly worse along with the other random manifestations I get while flaring.

I take it every other week.

I see the GI on Thurs morning and am scared at his ideas. We both had high hopes I'd respond well to Cimzia, as I responded within a week to Remicade and Humira. I'm bummed.

Did you respond well? How long until you saw good response? I know they say 3-6 months so maybe I need to give it more time?
Posted 12/9/2009 3:13 AM (GMT 0)
I was on cimzia for about a year.  at the 13th month a had a blockage.  have stopped cimzia and now on remicade.  i am still having flare ups on remicade.  so the question is did the cimzia work and put off problems for a yr.  i was able to stop my iron pills and all other meds during the year until about 9 month point when hemogloben started to go low. 

It is possible remicade wont work either.  Dr just put me back on prednisone.  he was to do upper and lower gi and colonoscopy in a few weeks to see what is going on.  surgery is a strong next step for me.  That said, the nurse who did my shots said she had 35 a motnh she gaev cimzia to and me and one other were teh only two who have since stopped working

hope this helps

Posted 12/9/2009 3:23 AM (GMT 0)
I've been on Cimzia about two months now and it seems to be working. All extra-intestinal symptoms seem to be gone, but I still have some D and moderate bowel discomfort before BMs which we hope will eventually go away. I think I still have some LI inflammation too. But none of the terrible fatigue, bloody D, etc. I've been off pred for a few weeks now. Last time I tried tapering off it (several months ago) my Crohn's rapidly got worse; the only difference now is Cimzia. The trial has been great--free everything. I recently went from biweekly to monthly shots.

Sorry to hear it hasn't (yet?) worked for you. :(
Posted 12/9/2009 4:56 AM (GMT 0)
I've been on it a little over 4 months now. Not really working.
Remicade did not work well for me and I developed side effects.
Humira worked wonderful for me for 3 years until I developed the antibodies.
Now, the Cimzia is not working well at all. (sigh)
Posted 12/9/2009 5:20 PM (GMT 0)
I was on Cimzia for about a year when it was in the phase III clinical trials and responded well to it, but I was getting 400 mg every 2 weeks.  I just switched back to it a couple of months back, after being on Humira for over a year.  During the loading doses of every 2 weeks, it worked great.  Now that I am on the every 4 weeks schedule, it's wearing off too soon.  I saw my rheumy last week and she said the few patients she has on it for RA are all having the same problem.  She is working on finding out if insurance will approve it more than once every 4 weeks. If not, we will try doing 200 mg every 2 weeks and see if that helps.  When it was working, Cimzia was helping so much more with the arthritis than Humira was, but I do think I have more stomach spasms on Cimzia than I did on Humira.

Posted 12/22/2009 4:55 AM (GMT 0)
UCB, makers of Cimzia, released the results of their Phase III trial today. Basically, Cimzia induced remission in 32% of patients after 6 weeks of use, vs. 25% for placebo, and this was lower than UCB had hoped for. Sounds like they want to do another trial. I think the remission rate for Remicade is about 40%. I think Cimzia is working for me, though I do still have some D.

www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE5BK0IM20091221
www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3728646
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