Rituximab for Chronic inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP)

Chronic inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIPD) is a rare autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own tissues. Rituximab is a biologic drug that is known to treat diseases like non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA), and pemphigus Vulgaris.

It seems to be effective for the treatment of CIDP, but it is not approved by any regulatory authority. Let’s look at one case study and see how it can help CIPD:

1. A total of 5 patients were identified who had received rituximab for the treatment of CIDP. These have been previously treated with multiple therapies and there was no response. The normal treatments were corticosteroids, mycophenolate mofetil, IV immune globulin, azathioprine, and plasma exchange. Three patients received rituximab for the management of symptoms of CIDP. Two patients received rituximab while admitted for acute worsening symptoms. Three of five patients demonstrated improvement in response to rituximab.

Rituximab can be used to treat patients with CIDP who are resistant to conventional therapies.

From what we know, the only FDA-approved drug is PANZYGA for the treatment of Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).