| Abstract: | The emergence and use of the biological agents is one of the major recent advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Although the tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) inhibitors are superior to conventional disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in terms of efficacy, certain patients may still be unresponsive or intolerant to them. Moreover, infection such as tuberculosis and the possibility of long‐term adverse effects such as malignancies are major concerns of the anti‐TNF‐α agents. Thus, newer and, hopefully, more effective but less toxic biological agents have to be developed as alternative therapies. This article reviews the preliminary clinical data on several non‐TNF‐α biological agents in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. |
