The European Congress of Rheumatology, EULAR 2024, is one of the most highly anticipated medical meetings of the year. The gathering of the clinical and scientific community to exchange ideas and insights is incredibly powerful, and I take great pride in the impressive representation of UCB at this year’s meeting. As a rheumatologist myself, I enjoy these opportunities to learn the latest science and think through how it might apply to people suffering with rheumatic disease in the real world.

UCB will be showcasing 18 accepted abstracts at this year's EULAR congress, highlighting our deep commitment to developing treatments for those affected by chronic inflammatory diseases with high unmet needs, including non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Our extensive scientific contributions are also a testament to our unwavering, sustained dedication to these patients and to the field of rheumatology. Patients are at the heart of everything we do, and we take every opportunity to understand the experience of people living with rheumatic diseases, their care pathways, and their needs at an individual and collective level. This deep understanding of the community and the unmet needs that exist informs our scientific programming. To align with the care needs of patients, our scientific programming has focused on researching areas like personalized treatment approaches in RA patients with high rheumatoid factor levels. With the presentation of our data at medical meetings like EULAR, we aim to support HCPs in championing informed care and shared decision making with their patients.

Through our work and our partnerships with patient and advocacy communities, we also understand that people living with rheumatic diseases often struggle to find long-term disease management solutions that work for them. This has inspired us to raise the bar in clinical trials, placing more stringent parameters on how we define success in a clinical trial setting. Our ultimate goal is to achieve better outcomes for patients.

People living with rheumatic diseases, particularly those who are struggling with current treatment options, should have access to and should prioritize treatment with disease-modifying therapies that maintain efficacy and sustain minimal disease activity or remission long-term. Our data at the meeting reflect our determination and pursuit of more stringent patient outcomes.

We look forward to EULAR 2024 as an opportunity to share knowledge, challenge the status quo, and expand value for populations with high unmet needs, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in rheumatology on behalf of patients.