The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK has granted a licence to an interleukin-1 (IL-1) inhibitor Anakinra (Kineret) for the treatment of cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) in adults and children as young as eight months.

CAPS is termed for a number of ultra-rare, life-long, severely debilitating autoinflammatory diseases that causes a rash, headache, fever, joint pain and other inflammatory symptoms.

In the UK, CAPS affects about one in one million people and the most severe form of the condition causes chronic inflammation of the meninges (aseptic meningitis).

Due to CAPS, patients suffer substantial pain and progressive reduction in their life, while its late complications include hydrocephalus, developmental delay, mental retardation and hearing loss.

Great Ormond Street Hospital's UCL Institute of Child Health vasculitis reader Paul Brogan said paediatricians looking after young children with CAPS are satisfied that medicines to treat this condition are increasingly available.

"We believe that early diagnosis, and institution of appropriate treatment in a timely fashion will reduce suffering, and long-term complications of this genetic disease," Brogan said.

As Anakinra secured licence from MHRA, patients will now have the choice of two licensed treatments for CAPS via the National Amyloidosis Centre in London, the national centre of excellence for this group of conditions.

Alder Hey Children's Hospital consultant paediatric rheumatologist Liza McCann said: "It isn't always practical for CAPS patients to regularly travel extensively for treatment, so it is really valuable for patients and clinicians to have choice of treatment, including the option of managing the condition at home with anakinra."

Anakinra is expected to be made available for use in a graduated pre-filled syringe, which allows for doses between 20mg and 100mg by March 2014.

It is also indicated in adults for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in combination with methotrexate, with an inadequate response to methotrexate alone.