Inorbvict Healthcare India Pvt Limited

Rituximab, sold under the brand name Rituxan among others, is a medication used to treat certain autoimmune diseases and types of cancer.^[2] It is used for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, pemphigus vulgaris and myasthenia gravis.^[2][3][4] It is given by slow injection into a vein.^[2]

Common side effects, which often occur within two hours of the medication being given, include rash, itchiness, low blood pressure, and shortness of breath.^[2] Other severe side effects include reactivation of hepatitis B in those previously infected, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and toxic epidermal necrolysis.^[2] It is unclear if use during pregnancy is safe for the baby.^[2] Rituximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody against the protein CD20, which is primarily found on the surface of immune system B cells.^[5] When it binds to this protein it triggers cell death.^[2]

Rituximab was approved for medical use in 1997.^[5] It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.^[6] The wholesale price in the developing world as of 2014 was US$148–496 per 100 mg.^[7] In the United Kingdom this amount cost the NHS approximately £182 in 2015.^[8] The average wholesale price in the United States of a typical treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (1,000 mg IV dose, 2 weeks apart) would have been $14,100 a month in 2014 ($705 per 100 mg)^[9] but the patent expired in 2016.^[10] A number of biosimilars have been launched.^[10]