• Posted January 22, 2026

Advance Treatment Can Delay Onset Of Rheumatoid Arthritis By Years, Trial Data Show

People can delay rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for several years by receiving treatment in advance using a long-standing biologic drug, a clinical trial found.

People receiving a year of abatacept (Orencia) injections had onset of rheumatoid arthritis postponed by up to four years, researchers reported Jan. 20 in The Lancet Rheumatology.

Currently, no licensed therapy can prevent rheumatoid arthritis, researchers noted.

But these results indicate treating high-risk patients with abatacept could potentially reduce the number of years they must live with the disease, researchers said.

“Intervening early in people at high risk of RA can have lasting benefits,” said lead researcher Andrew Cope, head of the King’s College London Center for Rheumatic Diseases.

“We have shown that this approach is safe and can prevent disease while patients are on treatment as well as substantially relieve symptoms,” Cope said in a news release. “Importantly, it can also delay the onset of RA for several years, even after treatment has stopped. This could reduce how long people live with symptoms and complications, drastically improving their quality of life.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abatacept for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in late 2005, according to Drugs.com. Abatacept works by reducing activation of the immune cells that cause the disorder.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data based on the original clinical trial for abatacept, which involved 213 people in the U.K. and the Netherlands.

The original trial followed participants for two years, but the new study reports outcomes from an extended follow-up between four and eight years, researchers said.

Results showed that a year of once-a-week abatacept injections provided benefits that persisted well beyond the treatment period.

Even at the end of six years of follow-up, only 29% of all at-risk patients had not progressed to RA, the study found.

The drug was most effective in people at highest risk of developing RA, based on results from a blood test looking at specific autoantibodies associated with the disease.

While they were at higher risk of arthritis, these people also were much more likely to benefit from early treatment.

Symptoms like joint pain and fatigue also eased while people were taking abatacept, but returned to usual levels after the one-year treatment period, the study said.

“The data show that, after stopping treatment, abatacept delays but does not prevent rheumatoid arthritis,” researchers concluded. “Indeed, the benefit of study drug on patient-reported outcomes was short-lived and confined to the treatment period, indicating that continuous treatment is required to suppress symptoms such as fatigue, pain and impaired physical and mental well-being.”

The study received funding from Bristol Myers Squibb, maker of abatacept.

More information

The Arthritis Foundation has more on rheumatoid arthritis treatments.

SOURCES: King’s College London, news release, Jan. 20, 2026; The Lancet Rheumatology, Jan. 20, 2026

What This Means For You

People should ask their doctor about their risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis, based on their family history and blood work.