Anakinra in familial Mediterranean fever: a profile of its use

Declarations

Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.

Authorship and Conflict of interest A. Lee and H.A. Blair are salaried employees of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature, and declare no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the review and are responsible for the article content.

Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent to publish, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.

The list of approved indications for anakinra (Kineret^®), an anti-interleukin (IL)-1 biological, has been expanded in the EU to include Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). The pathology of FMF is associated with excess production of IL-1, thus IL-1 blockade with anakinra was investigated as a treatment for FMF. Results from a phase 3 clinical trial and real-world experience in patients with FMF demonstrated reductions in FMF attack frequency, improvements in quality of life and reductions in serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Efficacy was also observed in patients with FMF and amyloidosis in the real-world setting; nevertheless, concurrent use of colchicine with anti-IL-1 biologicals is recommended to prevent and/or halt the progression of amyloidosis. Anakinra was generally well tolerated during the phase 3 clinical trial, with comparable proportions of patients with adverse reactions in the anakinra and placebo groups. Furthermore, the safety profile of anakinra in FMF was consistent with that established in other indications, based on all available evidence.

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