In a long-term partnership agreement, UCB, a global biopharmaceutical leader, has teamed up with OXO, a celebrated consumer products company, to offer patients a syringe and packaging components that take into account some of the challenges many rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients face when self-administrating their medicine.

UCB's Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) was approved this week by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and offers a treatment option for adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. Cimzia is also approved for reducing signs and symptoms of Crohn's disease and maintaining clinical response in adult patients with moderate to severely active disease who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy.

The new prefilled syringe is now also available to US Crohn's patients taking Cimzia for subcutaneous self-administration. The new syringe carries the Arthritis Foundation's Ease-of-Use Commendation, signifying a positive review of the syringe design by the Arthritis Foundation's independent research laboratory.

The companies recognized the importance of designing a syringe and packaging components that take into account many of the dexterity challenges RA patients may face. The prefilled syringe resulting from the partnership with OXO was designed for use by patients with different grip styles and strengths.

"This syringe, a result of our partnership with OXO, demonstrates UCB's commitment to patients with severe diseases. I am proud of the fact that people living with rheumatoid arthritis worked directly with the design and engineering teams to develop this syringe. We have designed a syringe that takes into account some of the challenges that come with self-injection. UCB has gone beyond providing a new effective treatment option. Our long-term partnership with OXO will allow us to help make everyday living easier for rheumatoid arthritis patient," said Roch Doliveux, chief executive officer of UCB. "In addition, we are pleased to offer people with Crohn's disease in the US the option of self-administering Cimzia using this newly designed syringe. Cimzia patients will now have the convenience of at-home self-injections," said Doliveux.

"OXO was built on the foundation of Universal Design, which focuses on creating easy and comfortable-to-use products for the widest spectrum of users possible," said Alex Lee, president of OXO. "In partnering with UCB, we were able to apply our design principles in a new setting. The result is a prefilled syringe that helps provide comfort and control for a wide variety of patient self-administration abilities and user styles."