Dörner T, Schulze-Koops H, Burmester G, et al. - In this open-label, non-randomised phase 3 study, RA individuals with insufficient response to conventional synthetic DMARDs received tocilizumab 8 mg/kg intravenously at study begin and weeks 4, 8 and 12 in order to assess early and late responses in biological-naïve individuals with RA beginning tocilizumab and early tocilizumab non-responders who changed to rituximab. Of 519 individuals, 222 attained early DAS28-ESR remission at week 16, 240 continued treatment, of which 213 received tocilizumab, and 27 switched to rituximab. In 42.8% of people, an early response to tocilizumab was noted. Half of the early partial responders profited from proceeding with tocilizumab. Changing non-responders to rituximab appeared to be attainable. Moreover, in individuals treated with tocilizumab or who switched to rituximab, no new safety signals were noticed.