Goldman, et al. conducted a pharmacovigilance study to evaluate the cardiovascular safety of JAK inhibitors in RA patients. The study demonstrated an increase in the reporting of VTE, stroke, and ischemic heart disease in patients treated with JAK inhibitor compared to bDMARDs, especially within the first year of treatment. This suggests a class effect of JAK inhibitors on cardiovascular risk, emphasising the need for ongoing surveillance and proactive cardiovascular risk management.

Burmester, et al. found that long-term filgotinib exposure was well tolerated in patients with moderate-to-severe active RA, with a stable rate of TEAEs over time. However, potential dose-dependent relationships for herpes zoster infections, malignancies and all-cause mortality were observed in patients aged ≥65 years, indicating the potential impact of age on the safety profile of Filgotinib. Therefore, some patients aged ≥65 years may benefit from the filgotinib 100 mg dose option.

January 2024

Cardiovascular Safety of Janus Kinase Inhibitor Therapy in a Multi-ethnic Population

Musculoskeletal Care 2023 doi 10.1002/msc.1853 Epub ahead of print

This study by Sunmboye, et al. investigated the relationship between CV event incidence and age in a multi-ethnic population that received JAK inhibitor therapy. They concluded that JAK inhibitor therapy was generally safe in a multi-ethnic population with a large age range, but they did find a statistically significant but numerically small positive correlation between age and CV incidence

December 2023

Rates of MACE and VTE events in patients with RA or PsA treated are consistent across 15 mg and 30 mg doses of upadacitinib, and comparable with active comparators adalimumab and MTX. Several risk factors were also identified for MACE and VTE events in patients with RA.

November 2023

This study by Meissner, et al. estimated the effects of JAKi, TNFi, bDMARDs and csDMARDs on the risk of MACE in RA patients. The authors found no significant difference in MACE risk by treatment group, even among patients at increased CV risk.

Keywords:

This retrospective inception cohort study investigated RA patients starting a new bDMARD or JAKi prescription between 01 August 2018 and 31 January 2022 from IQVIA’s Dutch Real-World Data Longitudinal Prescription database.

July 2023

Pots hoc analysis of safety data in patients with RA at increased risk of CV events from the upadacitinib SELECT phase III RA clinical programme helps to contextualise the overall risk profile of upadacitinib.