Rheumatoid Arthritis

In his final days, rheumatoid arthritis had crippled most of his joints. He lived in constant pain. His hands were gnarled and his body had withered. But, John Coward - onetime war hero, rowing champion and business executive - was a man of courage with an unending sense of humor. He was an inspiration to others until the end. For Mr. Coward, a 67-year-old resident of Marlton, the end came Tuesday at West Jersey Hospital-Voorhees, where he died in his sleep. "The man was a joy to be around, and everyone admired his courage," said Wendy McBrair, arthritis clinical specialist at West Jersey Hospital.

Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers may experience some improvement by adopting a vegetarian diet, according to a new study in the British Journal of Nutrition. The 13-month study of 44 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis found that those on vegetarian regimens experienced fewer arthritis symptoms than the volunteers whose diet contained meat and other animal products. This latest research joins a long list of studies showing that health statistics for vegetarians include lower rates of heart disease, obesity, obesity-related diabetes, colon cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, hypertension, osteoporosis, kidney stones, gallstones, and diverticular disease.

NEW YORK - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. will pay $950 million to resolve investigations into its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The agency said Merck, which has major operations in the Philadelphia region, would pay $321.6 million in criminal fines and $628.4 million as a civil settlement agreement. It also will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge that it marketed Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis before getting Food and Drug Administration approval.

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. signed a deal yesterday to develop drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. The agreement to work with Chroma Therapeutics Ltd. of Oxford, England, to develop new products represents Glaxo's latest effort to overhaul its research and development programs so it more closely resembles a small, nimble biotechnology company rather than a lumbering pharmaceutical giant. Glaxo is based in London but has large operations in the Philadelphia area.

The stock price of Greenwich Pharmaceuticals Inc. tumbled yesterday after Wall Street learned that the Fort Washington drug firm must provide further analysis of a key study for its potential arthritis medicine. The stock plunged by $3.625 a share to $7.50 in over-the-counter trading after the firm disclosed that the Food and Drug Administration late last week asked for more information about the most recent results on Greenwich's drug, Therafectin. The medicine, which has been designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, would be Greenwich's first product if it ultimately won marketing approval from the agency.

Protests aside, there may be another reason to pass on the foie gras. Scientists report that these livers of overstuffed waterfowl contain abnormal proteins that, when fed to laboratory mice, caused them to quickly develop the protein clumps themselves. Various human diseases - among them Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and rheumatoid arthritis - are associated with these clumps, known as amyloids. The new paper, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides no direct evidence that people are in danger.

Protalex Inc., a New Hope biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has raised $15.2 million in a private placement of 6.1 million shares of common stock at $2.50 a share. The publicly held company said it would use the proceeds for product development and clinical trials. Protalex is working on a new class of drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis and other immune-system disorders. In January, the company raised $5.8 million in a private placement of 2.59 million shares of stock at $2.25 a share.

Centocor Inc. said yesterday that preliminary results from a study of its experimental rheumatoid arthritis treatment found the compound worked to reduce joint pain and inflammation. The drug, CNTO-148, is a human monoclonal antibody being developed by the Horsham biotechnology company as a successor to Remicade, which is approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis and nine other inflammatory conditions. Remicade had sales of $2.12 billion last year. A human monoclonal antibody is derived from a human protein, as opposed to an animal protein.

A small Fort Washington drug firm, already fighting for survival, got more bad news over the weekend when one of its potential products failed to demonstrate that it is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Greenwich Pharmaceuticals Inc. said yesterday that the drug compound - known as GW-80126 - did not perform much better than a placebo when tested in 325 patients. Symptoms improved in 52 percent of the patients who took the compound, compared with 50 percent of the patients who used the placebo.

Rosemarie F. Boyle, 74, formerly of Narberth, a medical school administrator and rehabilitation specialist who helped disabled people while coping with her own rheumatoid arthritis, died of complications from the disease Saturday, Sept. 25, at Simpson House in Wynnefield. A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Ms. Boyle earned a bachelor's degree from Moravian College. Her rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed when she was 21. Despite the progressively crippling condition, she taught at Upper Darby Junior High School for several years.

Adrienne Rich, 82, a poet who for five decades always seemed to be in the vanguard of America's political, social, and literary changes, died Wednesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., from complications of rheumatoid arthritis. Rich was born in Baltimore in 1929. In 1951, while only a senior at Radcliffe College, she published her first book, A Change of World , chosen by W.H. Auden as winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award. One of her most anthologized poems, "Aunt Jennifer's Tiger," is careful, formal, and feminist: "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Lies heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

Adrienne Rich, a poet who for five decades always seemed to be in the vanguard of America's political, social, and literary changes, died Wednesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., from complications of rheumatoid arthritis. She was 82. Rich was born in Baltimore in 1929. In 1951, only a senior at Radcliffe College, she published her first book, A Change of World , chosen by W.H. Auden as winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award. One of her most anthologized poems, "Aunt Jennifer's Tiger," is careful, formal, and feminist: "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band/Lies heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

NEW YORK - Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. will pay $950 million to resolve investigations into its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The agency said Merck, which has major operations in the Philadelphia region, would pay $321.6 million in criminal fines and $628.4 million as a civil settlement agreement. It also will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge that it marketed Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis before getting Food and Drug Administration approval.

Question: I never had a problem swallowing pills until I was treated with radiation for esophageal cancer. Now, any pills I take seem to get trapped in the upper part of my throat. When it happens, water hardly helps, but swallowing a piece of bread seems to dislodge the pills. Is this from a Schatzki's ring? Would stretching my esophagus help? Answer: Radiation to the esophagus and neck can cause irritation and scarring to the tissues, as well as damage to salivary glands, which causes dry mouth.

Lois Fernandez works in visions. It was during a pilgrimage to Nigeria in 1972 that she first imagined the Odunde Festival, Philadelphia's celebration of African culture that she founded in 1975. The circumstances of her other great vision were more humble. Sitting in Odunde's "raggedy" office at 2308 Grays Ferry Ave. in the late 1990s, the longtime activist/agitator noticed that termites were eating her building. She looked outside the window, saw empty parcels next door, and told herself: "We can build.

Rosemarie F. Boyle, 74, formerly of Narberth, a medical school administrator and rehabilitation specialist who helped disabled people while coping with her own rheumatoid arthritis, died of complications from the disease Saturday, Sept. 25, at Simpson House in Wynnefield. A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Ms. Boyle earned a bachelor's degree from Moravian College. Her rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed when she was 21. Despite the progressively crippling condition, she taught at Upper Darby Junior High School for several years.

Children who once faced lifelong disabilities from arthritis seem to be getting relief from powerful but costly new medicines, according to studies presented in Philadelphia this week. The new drugs, known as TNF inhibitors, "have totally revolutionized our field," said David D. Sherry, director of clinical rheumatology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We used to have a lot more kids who were crippled.. . . That has virtually disappeared. " About 80,000 children in this country have chronic juvenile arthritis, and 220,000 have some other rheumatic disease, said Lisa Imundo, director of the division of pediatric rheumatology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Pfizer Inc.'s acquisition of Wyeth is expected to cut billions from the combined companies' research and development budget, but a senior executive at the new company said it would continue to produce promising new treatments. The companies completed their merger Thursday and began operating as a single company yesterday. Geno Germano, who had been president of Wyeth's U.S. and pharmaceutical business units in Collegeville, will head Pfizer's specialty businesses, which will be based at the Montgomery County facility.

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. signed a deal yesterday to develop drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. The agreement to work with Chroma Therapeutics Ltd. of Oxford, England, to develop new products represents Glaxo's latest effort to overhaul its research and development programs so it more closely resembles a small, nimble biotechnology company rather than a lumbering pharmaceutical giant. Glaxo is based in London but has large operations in the Philadelphia area.

Chinatown, casinos At Asian Americans United, we have devoted 20 years to building major institutions - a charter school and cultural festival, for example - that support the life of the Chinatown community. We believe our community deserves far better options than the most desperate ones being offered to us. We're not sure what Mayor Nutter meant when he said the city "is not an obstacle or barrier" to casino development ("As gaming brakes, guv growls," Tuesday). Does that mean the city abdicates its responsibility in looking out for the interests of residents and supports a shoddy public process, or refuses to conduct impact studies or ensure protections for neighborhoods?