Tanaka et al. observed that in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with tofacitinib, those with absolute lymphocyte counts (ALCs) <0.5x10³ cells/mm³ had a higher risk of serious infections and herpes zoster events compared to patients with higher ALC levels. This threshold may help identify increased infection risk in this population

January 2022

This post hoc analysis provides the first detailed description of the management and outcomes of HZ events in tofacitinib RA and PsA clinical studies.While prior studies have characterised the increased HZ risk with JAKinibs, the clinical management of these events has not been detailed.To this end, Winthrop, et al. analysed data from 21 RA and 3 PsA clinical studies to evaluate how HZ events and their sequelae were clinically managed during the RA and PsA tofacitinib clinical development progra...

August 2021

Genetic analysis of tofacitinib-treated subjects with RA or PsO identified multiple loci associated with increased herpes zoster (HZ) risk.It is well known that HZ risk is elevated in subjects with RA compared with the general population, and that treatment with JAK inhibitors may result in increased risks compared with TNFi and other bDMARD treatments. To this end, Bing, et al. used genome-wide association studies to identify genetic factors associated with an increased risk/faster onset of HZ ...

November 2017

The results of this analysis of patients with herpes zoster (HZ) within the global tofacitinib (TOF) RA programme suggest that there is likely to be a greater HZ risk in patients receiving TOF and glucocorticoids compared with patients receiving TOF monotherapy.The global TOF RA development programme comprised 2 Phase 1, 9 Phase 2, 6 Phase 3 and 2 long-term extension studies. These studies included 6192 patients; data were reviewed to identify cases of HZ. Crude incidence rates of number of pati...