2016 Vol.34, N°4 - Suppl.98 - Table of contents

The papers brought together in this supplement of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology constitute summaries of presentations at the eighteenth International Symposium on Advances in Targeted Therapies, which was held in March 2016.

As such, these presentations represent the state of the art on the biology of mechanisms of action and pathophysiology of cells and soluble mediators of inflammation. Current knowledge on the means and consequences of blocking various molecules or cellular mechanisms involved in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity is also presented.

We are grateful to Drs Crofford, Furst, Feldmann, Klareskog, Lipsky, Maini and Weinblatt, the members of the Advisory Board of the Symposium, for their invaluable help towards the success of the conference, the eighteenth of a series of similar events planned for the future. We will also adapt the Advisory Board for future meetings, so that young colleagues can substantially give their contribution to the format of the programme. We particularly wish to thank all the speakers for their excellent presentations, most of which are summarised here, and all the participants who have actively contributed to the discussions. As a novelty, we also present a paper summarising discussions on the unmet needs in inflammatory diseases, as seen by the participants of the meeting. We will try to update these thoughts also in the coming years.

Finally, we wish to thank the sponsors* of this University-driven event who have provided unrestricted support that enabled us to invite the leading scientists in the field. Moreover, a rheumatological audience and the readers of this supplement have been able to obtain back to back information on the efficacy and safety of biologic agents from representatives of the major companies involved with open discussion of issues arising regarding each agent when looked at individually and compared with others.

We hope that the readers of this supplement will enjoy the contributions as much as the participants seemed to enjoy the meeting.

F.C. Breedveld J.R. Kalden J.S. Smolen

*The conference was organised under the sole responsibility of the departments of the Universities of Erlangen, Leiden and Vienna in collaboration with an Advisory Board consisting of the above-mentioned colleagues from Departments of Rheumatology of several US and European Universities. The following companies provided unrestricted educational grants for the organisation of this conference: Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chugai/Roche, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. The pharmaceutical industry had no part in the decisions regard- ing the specific programme and, with the exception of a few observers, participants were selected and invited solely by the Organising Committee. Several members of the Advisory Board and the members of the Organising Committee have obtained experience in the use of biologic compounds in the course of their participation in clinical studies on these agents (for which the costs were defrayed by the industry).