Cytokine Signalling Forum
Publications
February 21
Upadacitinib Monotherapy Versus Methotrexate Monotherapy in Methotrexate-naïve Japanese Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Sub-analysis of The Phase 3 SELECT-EARLY study
Takeuchi T, Rischmueller M, Blanco R, Xavier RM, Ueki Y, Atsumi T, Chen S, Friedman A, Pangan AL, Strand V, van Vollenhoven RF.
Mod Rheumatol 2021;26:1–16.
In this sub-analysis of the Phase 3 SELECT-EARLY study, UPA demonstrated clinical efficacy superior to placebo in the Japanese subpopulation. Along with a favourable efficacy observed with the Japan-specific 7.5 mg dose of UPA for all secondary endpoints. SELECT-EARLY was designed to study the safety and efficacy of UPA 15 and 30mg as monotherapy, but it also included a subset of 138 Japanese patients, 40% of whom were randomised to receive UPA 7.5mg. This was designed to meet the requirements...
Keywords: JAK, Upadacitinib, Clinical, Phase 3
November 20
Safety Profile of Upadacitinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Integrated Analysis from the SELECT Phase III Clinical Programme
Cohen SB, van Vollenhoven RF, Winthrop KL, Zerbini CAF, Tanaka Y, Bessette L, Zhang Y, Khan N, Hendrickson B, Enejosa JV, Burmester GR.
Ann Rheum Dis 2020 DOI:10.1136/annrheumdis-2020-218510
This integrated Phase III safety analysis of UPA showed that UPA had a similar profile to ADA and MTX for serious infections, malignancies, and thromboembolic events. Patients receiving UPA had increased risk of HZ and creatine phosphokinase elevation versus ADA. This integrated Phase III safety analysis of UPA examined >3500 RA patients and 4000 patient-years of exposure. Data were pooled from 3834 patients in SELECT-NEXT, SELECT-BEYOND, SELECT-MONOTHERAPY, SELECT-COMPARE and SELECT-EARLY s...
Keywords: JAK, Upadacitinib, Clinical, Safety
August 20
Efficacy and Safety of Upadacitinib Monotherapy in Methotrexate-naïve Patients with Moderately to Severely Active Rheumatoid Arthritis (SELECT-EARLY): A Randomized, Double-blind, Active-comparator, Multi-center, Multi-country Trial
van Vollenhoven R, Takeuchi T, Pangan AL, Friedman A, Mohamed MEF, Chen S, Rischmueller M, Blanco R, Xavier RM, Strand V.
Arthritis Rheumatol 2020
Upadacitinib monotherapy demonstrated superior clinical, radiographic, and patient-reported outcomes versus methotrexate in methotrexate-naïve RA patients. This 48-week double-blind active comparator study investigated upadacitinib monotherapy in patients with early RA, who were either methotrexate-naïve, or who had very limited exposure. 947 patients were randomised to once-daily upadacitinib 15 or 30 mg, or weekly methotrexate. Unusually, there were two separate primary endpoints, s...
Keywords: JAK, Upadacitinib, Efficacy
July 20
Safety of synthetic and biological DMARDs: a systematic literature review informing the 2019 update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis
Sepriano A, Kerschbaumer A, Smolen JS, Van Der Heijde D, Dougados M, Van Vollenhoven R, McInnes IB, Bijlsma JW, Burmester GR, De Wit M, Falzon L, Landewé R.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2020;79:760-770
This SLR informed the 2019 EULAR taskforce updating recommendations for RA management. Overall, no new safety signals were reported. The known safety profile of bDMARDs was confirmed and extended to tsDMARDS. IL-6i associated lower intestinal perforation has been further confirmed, while VTE and PE concerns in JAKi treatment need further evaluation. Previous updates for the EULAR recommendations on RA pharmacological management were conducted in 2016. In this SLR safety of csDMARDs, tsDMARDs, a...
Keywords: Safety
January 19
A Pooled analysis of the Safety of Tofacitinib as Monotherapy or in Combination with Background Conventional Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in a Phase 3 Rheumatoid Arthritis Population
Kivitz AJ, Cohen S, Keystone E, van Vollenhoven RF, Haraoui B, Kaine J, Fan H, Connell CA, Bananis E, Takiya L, Fleischmann R.
Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2018 Dec;48(3):406-415. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2018.07.006.
In this pooled analysis of Phase 3 Tofacitinib (TOF) trials, safety profiles were generally similar between patients receiving monotherapy and combination therapy. Although selected adverse events of interest showed lower incidence rates (IRs) for TOF monotherapy patients. TOF has been studied as monotherapy and in combination with csDMARDs. In this post-hoc analysis, data were pooled from six Phase 3 TOF studies in RA patients to further examine the safety profile when used as monotherapy or i...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Safety
December 18
Evaluation of the Short-, Mid-, and Long-term Effects of Tofacitinib on Lymphocytes in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
van Vollenhoven R, Lee EB, Strengholt S, Mojcik C, Valdez H, Krishnaswami S, Biswas P, Lazariciu I, Hazra A, Clark JD, Hodge J, Wang L, Choy E.
Arthritis Rheumatol 2018 DOI: 10. 1002/art.40780
Tofacitinib (TOF) treatment is associated with short-term transient increases in absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC), followed by a gradual decline to reach steady state by ~48 months. Changes in both ALC and lymphocyte subset counts (LSC) were reversible upon TOF discontinuation. Low ALC but not LSC were associated with an increased risk of serious infective episodes (SIEs) and herpes zoster (HZ). This data supported the treatment recommendations on ALC counts for starting and continuing therapy w...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Safety
November 18
Safety and Efficacy of Baricitinib in Patients Receiving Conventional Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs or Corticosteroids
van Vollenhoven R, Helt C, Arora V, Zhong J, Correia AP, de la Torre I, Muram D.
Rheumatol Ther 2018 Dec;5(2):525-536. DOI 10.1007/s40744-018-0128-0
Baricitinib (BARI) in combination with MTX and concomitant csDMARDs was shown to be efficacious, regardless of corticosteroid use in RA patients. MTX is prescribed to most RA patients but concomitant csDMARDs and/or corticosteroids can be added. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of BARI in two arms; with/without corticosteroids and; with MTX only/MTX plus csDMARD/csDMARDs only. Baseline characteristics and adverse reactions were also compared. Data were pooled from two phase 3 studie...
Keywords: JAK, Baricitinib, Clinical, Phase 3
May 18
Tofacitinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Lack of Early Change in Disease Activity Predicts a Low Probability of Achieving Low Disease Activity at Month 6
Van Vollenhoven RF, Lee EB, Fallon L, Zwillich SH, Wilkinson B, Chapman D, Demasi R, Keystone E.
Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2019 Jan;71(1):71-79. DOI: 10.1002/acr.23585
This post-hoc analysis of two, Phase 3 studies, ORAL Start and ORAL Standard shows that early treatment response can predict long-term disease activity outcomes. EULAR recommendations suggest that treat-to-target strategies require regular target assessments with treatment approaches changed if targets are not reached at 6 months. To optimize this strategy, therapy outcomes should be known, and the relationship between short and long-term outcomes defined. The current analysis focused on the d...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Efficacy
October 17
Patient-reported Outcomes of Baricitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and No or Limited Prior Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drug Treatment
Schiff M, Takeuchi T, Fleischmann R, Gaich CL, DeLozier AM, Schlichting D, Kuo W, Won J, Carmack T, Rooney T, Durez P, Shaikh S, Hidalgo RP, van Vollenhoven R, Zerbini C.
Arthritis Res Ther. 2017 Sep 18;19(1):208
RA-BEGIN was a Phase 3, double-blind randomised active comparator-controlled study to evaluate baricitinib as monotherapy or in combination with MTX in patients with active RA who were naïve to csDMARDS and bDMARDS. In this analysis of the RA-BEGIN study, baricitinib alone or with MTX when used as initial therapy resulted in significant improvements in most patient-reported outcome measures compared with MTX. At baseline, study participants had active RA, impaired physical function, mode...
Keywords: JAK, Baricitinib, Clinical, PRO
Transaminase Levels and Hepatic Events During Tocilizumab Treatment: Pooled Analysis of Long-Term Clinical Trial Safety Data in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Genovese MC, Kremer JM, van Vollenhoven RF, Alten R, Scali JJ, Kelman A, Dimonaco S, Brockwell L.
Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Sep;69(9):1751-1761. doi: 10.1002/art.40176
In this pooled analysis investigating liver enzyme abnormalities and hepatic adverse events (AEs) during long-term tocilizumab (TCZ) treatment for RA in clinical trials, although transaminase elevations were frequent, rates of hepatic serious AEs remained low. Data were pooled from patients who received ≥1 dose of IV TCZ with or without DMARDs in Phase 3 or 4 clinical trials, long-term extensions, and a pharmacology study. A total of 4171 patients were included in the all-exposure populati...
Keywords: IL-6, Tocilizumab, Clinical, Safety
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
March 16
Tofacitinib or adalimumab versus placebo: patient-reported outcomes from a phase 3 study of active rheumatoid arthritis
Strand V, van Vollenhoven R, Bong Lee E et al.
Strand et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2016 Feb 29. doi:pii: kev442. [Epub ahead of print]
RA not only affects the physical aspects of a patient’s health but also has an impact on the psychological well-being causing a significant disease burden. This paper reports on the patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from the ORAL Standard study. This study investigated tofacitinib 5mg BID, 10mg BID, adalimumab vs. placebo over 12 months with a primary endpoint at month 3. All treatment groups showed significant improvements over placebo in HAQ-DI, PtGA and Pain with LSM changes in baselin...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Phase 3
January 16
VX-509 (Decernotinib), an Oral Selective JAK-3 Inhibitor, in Combination With Methotrexate in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis
Genovese MC, van Vollenhoven RF, Pacheco-Tena C, Zhang Y, Kinnman N.
Arthritis Rheumatol. 2016 Jan;68(1):46-55.
VX-509 (decernotinib) is a novel oral, selective inhibitor of JAK-3. JAK-3 is a member of the JAK signalling family that is primarily expressed in hematopoietic cells and associates with only the common γ-chain making it a promising therapeutic drug target. A phase IIb 24-week study of VX-509 in 358 patients with RA, who had prior inadequate response to MTX, uses ACR20 response rate and DAS28-CRP change at Week 12 to assess the efficacy of VX-509. Patients were administered either placebo+...
Keywords: JAK, Decernotinib, Clinical, Phase 2
June 13
Tofacitinib or adalimumab versus placebo in rheumatoid arthritis
van Vollenhoven RF, Fleischmann R, Cohen S, et al.
The New England Journal of Medicine 2012; 367(6):508-19
The ORAL Standard trial is one of six studies conducted as part of the phase 3 research programme for the oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib. This 12-month, phase 3 study compared the efficacy of tofacitinib with the TNF inhibitor adalimumab or placebo. Patients with active RA despite background methotrexate (MTX) were randomised to 5 or 10 mg tofacitinib twice daily, 40 mg adalimumab fortnightly, or placebo, which was switched to tofacitinib at month 3 in non-responders and month 6 f...
Keywords: JAK, Tofacitinib, Clinical, Phase 3