Patent ID: 8535671

Claim:
A method of improving survivability or quality of life of a patient in need thereof having elevated C-reactive protein levels, comprising administering to the patient an anti-interleukin-6 (“IL-6”), antibody or anti-IL-6 antibody fragment, wherein the antibody or antibody fragment specifically binds to an epitope on an intact human IL-6 polypeptide, wherein said epitope, when ascertained by epitopic mapping using overlapping linear peptide fragments which span the full length of the native human IL-6 polypeptide, includes one or more residues comprised in each of the human IL-6 fragments selected from those respectively consisting of (a) amino acid residues 37-51, (b) amino acid residues 70-84, (c) amino acid residues 169-183, (d) amino acid residues 31-45 and (e) amino acid residues 58-72 of the human IL-6 polypeptide having the sequence in SEQ ID NO:1, and whereby the patient's serum C-reactive protein (“CRP”) is reduced, and further whereby the administration of the anti-IL-6 antibody or antibody fragment results in improved survivability and/or quality of life of said patient.