Actemra

Tocilizumab, sold under the brand name Actemra among others, is an immunosuppressive drug developed jointly by Osaka University and Chugai Pharmaceutical and licensed to Hoffmann-La Roche in 2003. It is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody of the IgG1 subclass that targets the interleukin-6 receptor, binding both its soluble and membrane-bound forms to block the pro-inflammatory signaling that interleukin-6 would otherwise trigger. It is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, systemic and polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, giant cell arteritis, cytokine release syndrome, COVID-19, and systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease. Tocilizumab was first approved in the European Union in January 2009 and in the United States in January 2010, and is given by intravenous infusion or subcutaneous injection, with a half-life at steady state of roughly eight to fourteen days depending on drug concentration. By blocking interleukin-6 receptor signaling rather than a single cytokine target further downstream, it addresses a central driver of the inflammatory cascade implicated across a range of autoimmune and hyperinflammatory conditions.