Cytokine Signalling Forum

February 21

Filgotinib in combination with methotrexate or as monotherapy versus methotrexate monotherapy in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis and limited or no prior exposure to methotrexate: the phase 3, randomised controlled FINCH 3 trial

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

An Integrated Analysis of the Safety of Tofacitinib in Psoriatic Arthritis Across Phase III and Long Term Extension Studies with Comparison to Real World Observational Data

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

Long-term Effectiveness of Live Herpes Zoster Vaccine in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Subsequently Treated with Tofacitinib

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

Efficacy and Safety of Filgotinib for Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Naïve to Methotrexate Therapy: FINCH 3 Primary Outcome Results

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

May 17

Tocilizumab Combination Therapy or Monotherapy or Methotrexate Monotherapy in Methotrexate-naïve Patients with Early Rheumatoid Arthritis: 2-year Clinical and Radiographic Results from the Randomized, Placebo-controlled FUNCTION Trial

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