Patients, partnerships and innovation – Exploring the future of rheumatology at EULAR 2023

The future of rheumatology presents a level of optimism we have not seen before, with innovation and science consistently improving the lives of people living with rheumatic diseases. This is clear to see at EULAR – the annual congress held by the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology – held this month in Milan, Italy.

EULAR brings together experts from across the world to discuss the latest and greatest ground-breaking research in rheumatology across multiple diseases – many of which have remaining high unmet needs requiring effective solutions.

I’m excited to be part of the discussion in rheumatology alongside experts in the field. Here at UCB, we welcome the opportunity to transform the lives of people living with both immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and osteoporosis. At this year’s EULAR, we are presenting 23 abstracts that highlight not only our expanding rheumatology portfolio but also our enduring effort to advance care for diverse immune-mediated inflammatory conditions.

Our approach to supporting people living with chronic rheumatic diseases is centered on three things:  

• Patients – we deeply care about patients and want to understand their perspective, and so we listen and observe what they’re doing, what they need, what they want and what they hope for.
• Partnerships – we partner with the medical community, patient organizations, payers and other stakeholders to offer the most appropriate solutions to improve patients’ lives.
• Innovation – we are bold, not only in our science, our research, and our development, but we are also bold in how we connect to our patients’ world to deliver for them.

This approach underpins our entire rheumatology strategy and through our research, we push ourselves to address the prominent unmet needs of three key groups of people living with rheumatic diseases – our core populations for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), those living with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and osteoporosis, and lastly, new populations of remaining high unmet need such as in fibromyalgia. We’re delighted to present new data across two of these areas at EULAR – our core populations of PsA and axSpA, and SLE.

Enhancing quality of life in PsA and axSpA

The evolution of our rheumatology portfolio enables us to deliver and expand value for people living with axSpA and PsA, to support a better quality of life. At EULAR we are excited to present data in active PsA. In addition to this, we are also presenting results from studies which explore potential new solutions to treat the full spectrum of axSpA (encompassing non-radiographic axSpA and ankylosing spondylitis).i,ii We’re hopeful that these results will take us a step closer to improving the lives of people living with PsA and axSpA.

Our innovative pipeline

Our pipeline is focused on driving scientific advancements in chronic autoimmune diseases where there is an extremely high unmet need and great potential to provide long-term value for patients. We are determined to help ease the burden of people suffering from diseases like SLE and provide them with new options.

The future 

We are lucky to live in an era that allows us to deepen our understanding of rheumatic diseases and explore innovative and novel ways to support patients. We are committed to continuing our work with patients, organizations, and the medical community to reduce the time to diagnosis and support quicker access to biologic therapies alongside our innovative portfolio of products in order to build our offering and further help people live better lives.

For me, what I ultimately hope is that we will not stop until we find solutions for all patients, and I’m excited for what the future holds and the possibilities we will be able to explore.