February 21
Westhovens R, Rigby WF, van der Heijde D, Ching DW, Stohl W, Kay J, Chopra A, Bartok B, Matzkies F, Yin Z, Guo Y, Tasset C, Sundy JS, Jahreis A, Mozaffarian N, Messina OD, Landewé R BM, Atsumi T, Burmester GR.
Ann Rheum Dis. 2021 Jan 15:annrheumdis-2020-219213.
Filgotinib doses in combination with MTX have shown improved signs, symptoms and physical function in patients with RA and limited or no prior MTX exposure. FIL 200mg monotherapy did not have a superior ACR20 response rate versus MTX. This 52-week, phase 3 study evaluated FIL in 1252 patients with RA. Patients were randomised to FIL 200mg + MTX or FIL 100mg + MTX, FIL 200 mg monotherapy, or MTX monotherapy. The primary endpoint was the proportion patients achieving ACR20 at week 24. Safety was...
Keywords: JAK, Filgotinib, Clinical, Phase 3
May 20
Burmester GR, Curtis JR, Yun H, FitzGerald O, Winthrop KL, Azevedo VF, Rigby WFC, Kanik KS, Wang C, Biswas P, Jones T, Palmetto N, Hendrikx T, Menon S, Rojo R.
Drug Saf. 2020;43:379-392
Patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) had similar safety profile with TOF to that of other systemic therapies in real-world settings, except for the known risk of HZ. Treatment recommendations from EULAR and GRAPPA for patients with PsA vary according to adverse prognostic risk factors, disease manifestations and responsiveness to prior treatment. Safety concerns for most PsA therapies include gastrointestinal AEs, hepatotoxicity, opportunistic infections (OIs) including TB, and SIEs. This s...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Real World, Safety
April 20
Winthrop KL, Wouters A, Choy EH, Chen C, Biswas P, Wang L, Soma K, Needle E, Valdez H, Rigby WFC.
Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-216566
The results of ORAL Sequel suggest that the live zoster vaccine (LZV) may not provide adequate long-term protection in patients with RA receiving TOF. This LTE study enrolled 100 patients with RA, 14 weeks post LZV vaccination. Patients received either TOF 5 mg BID, or TOF 10 mg BID in addition to any background csDMARDs. Incidence rates and 95% CIs for HZ post-vaccination were calculated based on time to first event. Short-term varicella zoster vaccine (VZV) specific immunity was evaluated a...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Safety
June 19
Westhovens R, Rigby WFC, van der Heijde D, Ching DWT, Bartok B, Matzkies F, Yin Z, Guo Y, Tasset C, Sundy JS, Mozaffarian N, Messina OD, Landewé RBM, Atsumi T, Burmester GR.
EULAR 2019 Abstract LB0003 Presentation
Filgotinib is an orally administered, selective inhibitor of JAK1. Filgotinib has shown good efficacy and was well tolerated for the treatment of RA in Phase 2 and 3 studies evaluating MTX-IR or bDMARD-IR patients. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of filgotinib with and without MTX in patients with RA who were naïve to MTX therapy.
Keywords: JAK, Filgotinib, Clinical, Phase 3
Smolen JS, Pangan AL, Emery P, Rigby W, Tanaka Y, Vargas JI, Zhang Y, Damjanov N, Friedman A, Othman AA, Camp HS, Cohen S.
Lancet. 2019 Jun 8;393(10188):2303-2311
UPA monotherapy showed statistically significant improvements in clinical and functional outcomes versus continuing MTX in MTX inadequate-responder patients with RA. Despite its proven effectiveness and safety, many patients are unable to tolerate MTX due to its side-effects. Therapies that can be used without concomitant MTX therefore, have an important place in RA management. In previous studies, UPA has shown efficacy in combination with stable background csDMARDs in RA patients who are DMA...
Keywords: JAK, Upadacitinib, Clinical, Efficacy
September 18
Kremer JM, Rigby W, Singer NG, Birchwood C, Gill D, Reiss W, Pei J, Michalska M.
Arthritis Rheumatol 2018;70:1200–08 DOI 10.1002/art.40493
The COMP-ACT study showed patients achieving low disease activity (LDA) with tocilizumab (TCZ) plus methotrexate (MTX) can discontinue MTX, while maintaining disease control for up to 16 weeks. Previous studies have shown TCZ to be efficacious as a monotherapy or in combination with MTX in patients with RA1,2. Patients frequently discontinue taking DMARDs, such as MTX, due to intolerance or adverse events. COMP-ACT is a randomised, double-blind, 52-week study evaluating the sustained efficacy of...
Keywords: IL-6, Tocilizumab, Clinical, Efficacy
November 17
Gladman D, Rigby W, Azevedo VF, Behrens F, Blanco R, Kaszuba A, Kudlacz E, Wang C, Menon S, Hendrikx T, Kanik KS.
N Engl J Med 2017;377:1525–36.
The study data presented that tofacitinib (TOF) improves efficacy response rates in patients with severe psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who have an inadequate response to TNF inhibitors. The Phase 3 Oral Psoriatic Arthritis Trial (OPAL) Beyond study evaluated patients with active PsA who had inadequate responses to more than one TNFi. Patients were randomised 2:2:1:1 to 5 mg TOF BID or 10 mg TOF BID for 6 months; or PBO, with a switch to 5 mg TOF BID or to 10 mg BID at 3 months. Primary endpoints w...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Phase 3
September 17
Winthrop KL, Wouters A, Choy E, Soma K, Hodge J, Nduaka C, Biswas P, Needle E, Passador MS, Mojcik C, Rigby W.
Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Oct;69(10):1969-1977. doi: 10.1002/art.40187
Patients with RA who started treatment with tofacitinib 2–3 weeks after being vaccinated against herpes zoster had similar varicella zoster virus (VZV)-specific humoral and cell-mediated responses to the live vaccine compared to patients who received placebo. In this Phase 2 study, humoral and cell-mediated immune responses were evaluated before receipt of live zoster vaccine (LZV) and at 2, 6 and 14 weeks after vaccination, having been randomised to tofacitinib 5 mg BID or placebo, 2&nda...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Safety
May 17
Burmester GR, Rigby WF, van Vollenhoven RF, Kay J, Rubbert-Roth A, Blanco R, Kadva A and Dimonaco S.
Ann Rheum Dis Published Online First: 7 April 2017. Doi 10.1136/annrheumdis-20160210561
Burmester et al. present data showing that 52-week efficacy and safety of intravenous tocilizumab plus methotrexate, or tocilizumab monotherapy are maintained through to Week 104 in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Patients were assigned to four treatment groups: 4 mg/kg TCZ + MTX, 8 mg/kg TCZ + MTX, 8 mg/kg TCZ + placebo or placebo + MTX. Patients not achieving DAS28 ≤3.2 at Week 52 and who were not receiving 8 mg/kg TCZ were rescued to 8 mg/kg TCZ + MTX. Of the 1162 randomly assi...
Keywords: IL-6, Tocilizumab, Clinical, Phase 3