email article Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with rituximab (Rituxan) or JAK inhibitors had more severe COVID-19 disease courses, analysis of data from a large registry found. In an adjusted multivariate analysis compared with patients on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, those on rituximab had a fourfold higher risk for worse disease (OR 4.15, 95% CI 3.16-5.44), while those on JAK inhibitors had a twofold greater risk (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.60-2.65), reported Jeffrey Sparks, MD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, at the European League Against Rheumatism virtual congress. "As we all know, there has been intense interest during the pandemic in repurposing immune modulating drugs for COVID-19 treatment," he said.