van Vollenhoven et al. compared the efficacy and safety of upadacitinib monotherapy to methotrexate monotherapy over five years in methotrexate-naïve patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The study found that upadacitinib provided better long-term efficacy and higher rates of disease activity remission than methotrexate; however, it was associated with higher incidences of adverse events, particularly at the higher dose of 30 mg.

Fleischmann et al. evaluated the long-term efficacy and safety of upadacitinib in rheumatoid arthritis patients with inadequate response or intolerance to bDMARDs over five years. The study demonstrated that upadacitinib 15 mg and 30 mg were effective in maintaining disease control, with >75% of patients achieving CDAI LDA by week 260. The safety profile remained consistent with no new issues identified.

April 2024

The 5-year benefit-risk profile for upadacitinib in RA remains favourable, with clinical outcomes improved or maintained through Week 260. No new safety findings were identified during the LTE. Results remained consistent with earlier analyses of SELECT-NEXT.

November 2021

JAKinibs have been linked with an increased risk of HZ in patients with RA. To this end, Winthrop, et al. evaluated data from six Phase III clinical trials to determine the incidence of HZ in the upadacitinib (UPA)-treated patients with RA and identify potential risk factors for the development of HZ in these patients.Analysis of data provides further support for the need for continued vigilance and monitoring for signs of herpes zoster (HZ) in patients receiving UPA, particularly in Asian popul...

August 2021

Upadacitinib treatment results in statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life.Strand, et al. evaluated the effect of upadacitinib monotherapy versus methotrexate (MTX) on patient-reported outcomes (PRO) in MTX-naïve and MTX-inadequate responder patients with moderately-to-severely active RA. Their research from the SELECT-EARLY and SELECT-MONOTHERAPY randomised controlled trials found that upadacitinib monotherapy resulted in clinically mean...

February 2020

Ex vivo pharmacodynamic assay results demonstrated a greater selectivity of UPA on JAK1 versus JAK3 compared to TOF. This analysis conducted ex vivo stimulation of STAT3 phosphorylation by IL-6 as a measure of JAK1 activity and STAT5 phosphorylation by IL-7 as a measure of JAK1/JAK3 activity. Change in pSTAT3 and pSTAT5 were calculated at 1, 6 and 12 hours following drug administration using samples collected from healthy subjects and subjects with RA, from 2 phase 1 studies. Exposure-response m...

January 2020

In SELECT-NEXT, UPA demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in patient reported outcomes compared to PBO in patients with RA who had an inadequate response to csDMARDs. In this post hoc analysis, the effect of UPA 15 or 30 mg on patient reported outcomes were assessed and compared to PBO.Eligible patients (661) with an inadequate response to csDMARDs were randomly assigned 2:2:1:1 to receive background csDMARD therapy with either UPA 15 mg, UPA 30 mg or PBO. PROs collected at Wk4 and Wk1...

June 2019

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 DMARD...

July 2018

Patients with moderate-to-severe active RA had significant improvements in clinical signs and symptoms with upadacitinib (UPA) compared with placebo.In Phase 2 studies, UPA showed favourable efficacy when administered twice daily as an immediate-release formulation at doses of 6–12 mg in patients with active RA who had TNFi-IR.1,2 An extended-release formulation allowing once-daily (QD) administration was developed for Phase 3 studies. SELECT-NEXT was a double-blind, multicentre, Phase 3 study t...

March 2017

The summary and accompanying slide deck have been developed in conjunction with the Genovese et al. study (Study 1) which examined ABT-494 in MTX-IR patients in order to compare and contrast the data. In these two Phase 2b studies, ABT-494 (a novel selective JAK-1 inhibitor) was shown to be effective in patients with active RA who were non-responders to MTX or at least one TNF inhibitor.Patients with active RA who had an inadequate response to MTX (study 1) or were refractory to or intolerant of...