Rimexolone

Rimexolone is a locally active nonfluorinated glucocorticoid which has minimal systemic effects and is virtually devoid of any atrophogenic effects on the skin. It has high corticosteroid receptor affinity and remains localised at the injection site for a prolonged period after intra-articular injection. Thus, serum rimexolone concentrations remain low. Rimexolone had the longest mean intra-articular residence time of several intra-articular steroid preparations (25 days, vs 6 days for triamcinolone hexacetonide and 1 to 4 days for the other drugs, which included methylprednisolone acetate), Single intra-articular injections of rimexolone provided long-lasting improvement of clinical efficacy parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, rimexolone was superior to placebo for treating knee joints and superior to placebo and similar to methylprednisolone acetate for treating small joints of the hand. Inpatients with osteoarthritis of the knee joint, rimexolone was superior to placebo, tended to be slightly more effective than methylprednisolone acetate and was similar to triamcinolone acetonide or a depot preparation of betamethasone dipropionate.