Etanercept, an anti-tumour necrosis factor α drug, has been approved and licensed for the treatment of active, treatment resistance, polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in patients aged 4 years or older. An etanercept registry was begun in January 2001 by paediatric rheumatologists in Germany and Austria, and data from the first 34 months of the registry have been reported (

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Up to the end of October 2003 data had been collected on 322 patients from 36 centres. All had failed to respond to methotrexate before starting etanercept and they had been treated …