Two-year Efficacy and Safety of Subcutaneous Tocilizumab in Combination with Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drugs Including Escalation to Weekly Dosing in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Kivitz A, Olech E, Borofsky MA, Zazueta B, Navarro-Sarabia F, Radominski SC, Merrill JT, Pacheco-Tena C, Pei J, Nasmyth-Miller, Pope JE.
J Rheumatol 2018 Apr; 45(4):456-464

This 2-year Phase 3 study, proved that subcutaneous tocilizumab (TC-SC) has long-term efficacy and an acceptable safety profile. Patients enrolled had been previously diagnosed with RA with an inadequate response to DMARDs. Patients were randomised 2:1 to receive doses of TCZ-SC (n=437) or PBO (n=219) every other week for 6 months. After this time, all patients received TCZ-SC. Escape therapy, defined as weekly TCZ-SC, was available to patients from Month 3. Efficacy was analysed using ACR resp...

Keywords: IL-6, Tocilizumab, Clinical, Phase 3

Analysis of Infections and All-Cause Mortality in Phase II, III and Long-Term Extension Studies of Tofacitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Cohen S, Radominski SC, Gomez-Reino JJ, et al.
Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014;66(11):2924–2937

This study pools data from the global tofacitinib RA development programme (phase II, phase III and long-term extension studies) to determine the rate of infections and all-cause mortality with tofacitinib treatment. In total, 4,789 patients within these studies received tofacitinib, at varying doses and with varying duration. The overall incidence rate of serious infections was 3.09 events/100 patient-years (95% CI 2.73–3.49), which was stable over time, with pneumonia and skin and s...

Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Safety