Tocilizumab-Aazg side effects: what 454 FDA adverse event reports show
Drug class
Interleukin-6 Receptor Antagonist
Brand names
Tyenne
Who reports
454 reports · 61% serious · 21 with death outcome · 79% female
Used for
TYENNE ® (tocilizumab-aazg) is an interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor antagonist indicated for treatment of: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) ( 1.1 ) • Adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs). Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) ( 1.2 ) • Adult patients with giant cell arteritis.
What it is
Tocilizumab-aazg is a recombinant humanized anti-human interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptor monoclonal antibody of the immunoglobulin IgG1κ (gamma 1, kappa) subclass with a typical H 2 L 2 polypeptide structure.
Boxed warning
RISK OF SERIOUS INFECTIONS Patients treated with tocilizumab products including TYENNE are at increased risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 ), Adverse Reactions ( 6.1 )] .
Causality screen of the 5 strongest signals
What the badges mean
- Labeled (related wording) The label describes this effect under different wording (e.g. 'neutropenia' for 'neutrophil count decreased'). Treated as known.
- Reporting / coding artifact An administrative, monitoring or exposure term (product issue, off-label use, 'test normal', overdose...). Not a biological reaction; a high PRR here reflects how reports are coded.
- Not in label — unassessed Not found in the label text, not an artifact pattern. This is a genuine candidate for a formal causality assessment (Bradford Hill / WHO-UMC); it has NOT had one here.
Strongest disproportionality signals
Flagged terms (PRR ≥ 2, χ² ≥ 4, n ≥ 10), ranked by PRR; infinite PRRs (no comparator reports) excluded. The EBGM column is a second, shrinkage-based estimate (MGPS) with its 5th percentile EB05 and the BCPNN IC025; a pair flagged by PRR alone is marked PRR-only and should be read as fragile. The strata column recomputes the PRR on serious reports only and flags pairs whose reports are unusually skewed by sex or come mostly from consumers rather than clinicians. 3 further terms are in the interactive explorer. Reaction links open the term's cross-drug page.
| Reaction | Reports | PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p | EBGM EB05 · IC025 | Label screen | Serious-only & strata | Trial cross-check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hepatic cytolysis | 6 | 22.6 10.2–50.1ROR 22.9 · χ² 103 / p 1e-24 | 19.7 EB05 7.5 · IC025 +1.7 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious PRR 21.3 | no trial data cached |
| Agranulocytosis (severe loss of white cells) | 7 | 17.5 8.4–36.4ROR 17.7 · χ² 93 / p 3e-22 | 14.8 EB05 6.0 · IC025 +1.8 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 16.5 | no trial data cached |
| Product substitution issue | 21 | 16.8 11.1–25.5ROR 17.6 · χ² 298 / p 6e-67 | 16.4 EB05 11.0 · IC025 +2.9 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious PRR 33.7 · 95% clinician | no trial data cached |
| Injection site urticaria | 5 | 9.5 4.0–22.7ROR 9.6 · χ² 30 / p 2e-8 | 6.0 EB05 2.6 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious n=1 | no trial data cached |
| Injection site pruritus | 8 | 5.5 2.8–11.0ROR 5.6 · χ² 25 / p 2e-7 | 4.3 EB05 2.4 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 9.2 | no trial data cached |
Trial evidence (ClinicalTrials.gov)
Most frequently reported reactions
By raw co-report count, regardless of disproportionality. Common terms here are often the illness itself or generic outcomes.
| Reaction | Reports | PRR 95% CI · ROR · χ²/p | EBGM EB05 · IC025 | Label screen | Serious-only & strata | Trial cross-check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product substitution issue | 21 | 16.8 11.1–25.5ROR 17.6 · χ² 298 / p 6e-67 | 16.4 EB05 11.0 · IC025 +2.9 3/3 methods agree | Reporting / coding artifact | serious PRR 33.7 · 95% clinician | no trial data cached |
| Injection site pruritus | 8 | 5.5 2.8–11.0ROR 5.6 · χ² 25 / p 2e-7 | 4.3 EB05 2.4 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 9.2 | no trial data cached |
| Agranulocytosis (severe loss of white cells) | 7 | 17.5 8.4–36.4ROR 17.7 · χ² 93 / p 3e-22 | 14.8 EB05 6.0 · IC025 +1.8 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious PRR 16.5 | no trial data cached |
| Hepatic cytolysis | 6 | 22.6 10.2–50.1ROR 22.9 · χ² 103 / p 1e-24 | 19.7 EB05 7.5 · IC025 +1.7 3/3 methods agree | Not in label — unassessed | serious PRR 21.3 | no trial data cached |
| Injection site urticaria | 5 | 9.5 4.0–22.7ROR 9.6 · χ² 30 / p 2e-8 | 6.0 EB05 2.6 · IC025 +0.9 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | serious n=1 | no trial data cached |
| Injection site rash | 4 | 6.1 2.3–16.1ROR 6.1 · χ² 12 / p 2e-4 | 3.9 EB05 1.7 · IC025 +0.2 | Labeled (related wording) related wording | – | no trial data cached |
| Injection site warmth | 4 | 9.0 3.4–23.7ROR 9.0 · χ² 21 / p 2e-6 | 5.2 EB05 2.1 · IC025 +0.5 3/3 methods agree | Labeled (related wording) related wording | – | no trial data cached |
| Device defective | 3 | 8.5 2.8–26.4ROR 8.6 · χ² 13 / p 1e-4 | 4.5 EB05 1.7 · IC025 -0.0 PRR-only: not supported by EBGM or IC | Reporting / coding artifact | serious n=1 | no trial data cached |
Unlabeled candidate signals
Every screened signal with n ≥ 20 was either labeled, an indication term, or an artifact pattern — no unlabeled candidate stood out in the top signals.
✓ A hand-written Bradford Hill causality assessment exists for this drug: Tocilizumab ↔ Gastrointestinal perforation.
Want to assess one of these properly? The runbook describes the Bradford Hill / trial-evidence workflow used on the assessment page, and handoff_top1000_signals.csv lists the strongest unassessed pairs across all drugs.
Common questions
What are the most reported side effects of Tocilizumab-Aazg?
In FDA FAERS, the most frequently co-reported reaction terms for Tocilizumab-Aazg are injection site pruritus, agranulocytosis, hepatic cytolysis, injection site urticaria, injection site rash, injection site warmth. These are report counts, not rates: FAERS has no denominator, reporting is voluntary and uneven, and a term can be reported because of the illness being treated rather than the drug.
Does Tocilizumab-Aazg have an FDA boxed warning?
Yes. The current FDA label carries a boxed warning: RISK OF SERIOUS INFECTIONS Patients treated with tocilizumab products including TYENNE are at increased risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 ), Adverse Reactions ( 6.1 )] .
Do FAERS signals prove that Tocilizumab-Aazg causes these side effects?
No. A disproportionality signal (PRR, ROR) means a reaction is reported more often with this drug than with others in the database. That can reflect a real effect, but also the disease being treated, stimulated reporting after news or litigation, co-medications, or how reports are coded. Causality needs temporality, dose-response, biological plausibility, consistency across data sources and, ideally, trial or cohort evidence. This page screens each term against the FDA label and ClinicalTrials.gov results; it does not establish causation.
Sources & methods
- FDA label via openFDA (set ID 87ac5047-4f2b-4571-a8a8-32e08865f379, effective 20260723; matched on
openfda.generic_name.exact:"TOCILIZUMAB-AAZG") - Bayesian shrinkage measures computed offline over all 1,317,300 cached pairs: BCPNN information component (IC, with Norén closed-form IC025) and MGPS empirical-Bayes geometric mean (EBGM, EB05) with a two-component gamma prior fitted by maximum marginal likelihood (α₁=0.57, β₁=0.02, α₂=1.42, β₂=0.70, w=0.17); unstratified
- FAERS pair statistics from the OpenPV build of 2026-09-14 (openFDA
count=aggregation, fieldpatient.drug.openfda.generic_name.exact, 8 reaction terms, min 3 co-reports); PRR/ROR with 95% CI, chi-square with Yates correction - Serious-only and stratified counts (serious:1, patient.patientsex, primarysource.qualification) from openFDA count queries; serious-only PRR uses the drug serious report total and the term global serious total (N_serious=11,882,979); strata shown only when n ≥ 20
- Seriousness and sex counts from openFDA
count=serious,patient.patientsex,seriousnessdeath
Page generated 2026-10-08. Label and PubChem text are retrieved automatically and may lag the current label; always check the current prescribing information. OpenPV is a beta research tool of the Open Source Medicine Foundation.