Publications

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, moderate levels of pain/fatigue and reduced HRQOL. Patients who were rescued or discontinued from the study were defined as non-responders for all categorical data and had their last observations prior to rescue or discontinuation.Patients in both baricitinib groups reported greater improvement in HAQ-DI, pain, fatigue, worst joint pain, SF-36 physical component score, and EQ-5D at Weeks 24 and 52. Patients in both baricitinib groups also reported statistically significant improvements in SF-36 mental component score and WPAI-RA at Week 52 compared with MTX. Side effects were not reported within this paper.This study confirms previously published data that baricitinib can be an effective treatment for RA and be of particular importance to patients for whom MTX therapy is not desirable.