American pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc said that its experimental arthritis drug met the focal goals of two late-stage clinical trials.  Pfizer Inc is seeking for new products to equalize those that are losing patent protection and its arthritis drug, tofacitinib, is one of its most significant new products.

According to the company initial results from 2 studies: ORAL Standard, and ORAL Step, both trials met their main goals.  The company said that ORAL Standard study tested patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis who did not react well to methotrexate, a standard treatment for the condition.  The recent study of Pfizer showed that the drug considerably reduced the signs and symptoms of the disease when given twice every day either at 5 milligrams or 10 milligrams.

Pfizer said that the ORAL Step study tested patients who did not have an enough response to at least one of a class of drugs known as TNF inhibitors. The study also revealed that when given at both doses twice a day patients achieved a major progress in signs and symptoms of the disease.  New drug Tofacitinib fit in to a new class of oral drugs, known as JAK inhibitors that affect the signaling of proteins mixed up in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.  The company said that if approved, it would compete with injectable treatments like Enbrel made by Amgen Inc, Humira, by Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade.

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