He speculated that the monoclonal antibody therapies increase major cardiovascular events by increasing delivery of IL-12 and IL-23 to atherosclerotic plaques, or perhaps the p40 subunits of IL-12 and IL-23 form dimers that become bioactive. Or, some unknown biologic activity could be at play.
SDEF and this news organization are owned by Elsevier. Dr. Leonardi declared having potential conflicts of interest with Abbott and Centocor, which manufacture briakinumab and ustekinumab, and with Abgenix, Allergan, Alza, Amgen, Biogen-IDEC, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Connetics, Corixa, Fujisawa, Galderma, Genentech, Genzyme, GSK, Incyte, Isis, Lilly, Medimmune, Miravant, Pfizer, Schering Plough, Serono, Synta, Wyeth, and Xoma.