People with severe and difficult-to-treat sarcoidosis can safely switch from Remicade (infliximab) or its biosimilar Inflectra, to another biosimilar called Flixabi and maintain similar clinical benefits, a study reports. Six months after switching, none of these patients had stopped…

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.” – Jim Rohn Last weekend was really good for me. I had a chance to relax a little and celebrate my aunt’s 90th birthday. Although she wasn’t the youngest, she’s the last of my great-grandparents’ 11 children.

I miss the days when a sneeze was nothing to worry about. Especially after I encountered a stranger who was not wearing a mask and spraying the air. I veered to get out of his path, and he moved — intent, it seemed, to stay in mine. I walked faster,…

With views of trees from every window, pollution never crossed my mind when I signed my current lease. Which is how I ended up in an area with unhealthy air. If you live in the U.S., there’s a good chance you’re in one, too. The American Lung Association released its…

A short, in-hospital exercise program was found to decrease the levels of fats, or lipids, in the blood of people with sarcoidosis and to improve their physical health. In fact, researchers said that changes in the lipid profile could potentially be used to determine how well a patient is…

Eyelids fluttering open to a new day, I mentally searched my body for signs that anything was different. But a sore arm with a Band-Aid was the only evidence of my vaccination 12 hours earlier.  No headache, fever, chills, or any more fatigue than usual, which I was informed…

As anyone affected by a rare disease knows, treating the illness while trying to go about everyday life is an expensive undertaking.  But exactly how expensive — in terms of direct and indirect costs across rare disease populations — might still come as a surprise: almost…

Cells of the innate immune system called monocytes can be useful biomarkers to predict the outcomes of people with sarcoidosis, a recent study has found. The findings showed that patients with low levels of blood monocytes at diagnosis were more likely to achieve remission after two years and had…

I was in my 40s when I entered a neighborhood gym for the first time. I slunk over to the least-crowded row of treadmills, and still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Until then, my huffing and puffing had been done in private. But after my treadmill died, my…

Xentria is seeking regulatory approval to begin clinical trials to test XTMAB-16, its investigational TNF-alpha inhibitor for the treatment of sarcoidosis. Xentria submitted the request — in the form of an investigational new drug (IND) application — to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Feb. 26. The…