Publications

Hernández-Hernández et al. showed that in a real-world clinical settings, UPA persistence is lower among RA patients who have received prior IL-6i treatment; and that treatment strategies to avoid UPA in patients with cardiovascular risk (CVR) appear to be primarily driven by pivotal safety studies rather than regulatory guidance.

This large French nationwide study by Fautrel et al. provided reassuring results for patients, who initiated tocilizumab (TCZ), aged at least 75 years compared to younger patients. Authors compared patient characteristics, tolerance of RA treatments, and long-term management with TCZ in patients with RA over and under 75 years of age.

Schaefer et al. showed that treatment with JAKis (predominantly BARI and TOF) was associated with an increased HR of malignancies compared to treatment with bDMARDs in the overall study cohort, consistent with results from the ORAL surveillance trial. To better understand the complex role of JAKis in cancer development in RA patients, Schaefer et al. estimated the effects of JAKis compared to bDMARDs on the risk of malignancy (excluding NMSC) in patients with RA.

Burmester et al. provide insights into the benefit–risk profiles of UPA and adalimumab in patients with varying cardiovascular (CV) risks, suggesting that UPA may offer efficacy advantages over adalimumab irrespective of baseline CV risk, with generally similar rates of AEs. To better understand the benefits and risks of RA treatments in patients with different background CV risk, Burmester et al. assessed the short-term and long-term benefit–risk profiles of UPA and adalimumab in patients enrolled in SELECT-COMPARE.

Silvagni et al. aimed to comparatively assess the risk of cardiovascular events (CVE) in RA patients treated with JAKis or TNFis and to explore the interactions with patient profiles [including age, baseline cardio-cerebrovascular (CV) risk, and frailty, which is a state of decreased physiological reserve, assessed using a validated frailty index for Administrative Heathcare Databases (AHD)]. This AHD-based study highlighted no significantly increased risk of CVEs or MACEs for JAKis with respect to TNFis. The CV risk remains mainly driven by the patient profiles. The frailty, in parallel with baseline CV risk, emerged as an important determinant of CVEs, MACEs, and thromboembolic events (TEs). Frailty and baseline CV risk are key predictors of CVEs, MACEs, and TEs, and should be considered in both clinical assessment and trial design for RA patients on ts/b-DMARDs.

Mease et al. found that bimekizumab demonstrated a favourable long-term safety profile in patients with axSpA and PsA.