Cytokine Signalling Forum

September 20

Infections in Baricitinib Clinical Trials for Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis

Winthrop KL, Harigai M, Genovese MC, Lindsey S, Takeuchi T, Fleischmann R, Bradley JD, Byers NL, Hyslop DL, Issa M, Nishikawa A, Rooney TP, Witt S, Dickson CL, Smolen JS, Dougados M.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, May 2020

Baricitinib, an oral selective JAK1 and JAK2 inhibitor,8 demonstrated significant clinical efficacy in phase 3 RA trials. Pooled data from these trials, including a long-term extension (LTE), inform the safety profile for baricitinib, mainly to evaluate the incidence of infection in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with a focus on serious infection, tuberculosis (TB), herpes zoster (HZ) and opportunistic infection (OI). The data collected were from eight double-blind randomised ...

Keywords: JAK, Baricitinib, Clinical, Safety

May 20

Evaluation of Hepatitis B Virus in Clinical Trials of Baricitinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Harigai M, Winthrop K, Takeuchi T, Hsieh T-Y, Chen Y-M, Smolen JS, Burmester G, Walls C, Wu W-S, Dickson C, Liao R, Genovese MC.
RMD Open 2020;6:e001095

Although hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation was seen in patients with RA treated with DMARDs, including BARI, who had serology suggestive of prior infection, reactivation was transient even with continued BARI treatment and did not account for any clinically relevant AEs. Reactivation of HBV replication is a recognised complication in patients receiving biologic agents for RA, such as DMARDs. Limited data exist on prevalence of occult infection and the incidence of reactivation in RA patients...

Keywords: JAK, Baricitinib, Clinical, Safety

October 18

Safety Profile of Baricitinib in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis with over 2 Years Median Time in Treatment

Smolen J, Genovese M, Takeuchi T, Hyslop D, Macias W, Rooney T, Chen L, Dickson C, Riddle Camp J, Cardillo T, Ishii T and Winthrop K.
J Rheumatol. 2019 Jan;46(1):7-18. DOI: 10.3899/jrheum.171361

Baricitinib (BARI) showed an acceptable 5.5-year safety profile in this integrated analysis of patients with moderate-to-severe, active RA. This study evaluated the safety profile of the oral, once daily Janus kinase inhibitor, BARI, in adults with moderately to severely active RA. Data from eight randomised clinical trials and one long-term extension study were pooled and analysed for placebo comparison and dose response. There were 3492 patients who received BARI for a total of 6637 patient-y...

Keywords: JAK, Baricitinib, Clinical, Phase 3

December 16

Baricitinib, Methotrexate, or Combination in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and no or Limited Prior Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Treatment

Fleischmann F, Schiff M, van der Heijde D, Ramos-Remus C, Spindler A, Stanislav M, Zerbini CAF, Gurbuz S, Dickson C, de Bono S, Schlichting D, Beattie S, Kuo W-L, Rooney T, Macias W, Takeuchi T.
Arthritis Rheumatol 2016. DOI 10.1002/art.39953. Accepted article

In this 52-week study of patients receiving initial therapy for RA, baricitinib alone or in combination with MTX demonstrated superior efficacy compared with MTX alone. Patients naïve to csDMARD (no or <3 doses of MTX) or bDMARD were randomised 4:3:4 (N=588) to MTX QW, baricitinib 4 mg QD or baricitinib 4 mg QD + MTX QW. The primary endpoint assessment was noninferiority of baricitinib monotherapy to MTX based on ACR20 response at Week 24. Not only was the primary endpoint met, baricit...