January 2017

Effects of Baricitinib on Lipid, Apolipoprotein, and Lipoprotein Particle Profiles in a Phase 2b Study in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis

Arthritis Rheumatol 2017. DOI 10.1002/art.40036.

In this analysis of the effect of baricitinib on changes in lipid profile, lipoprotein particle size and apolipoprotein content, increases in serum lipids were observed with HDL-C increases correlating with improved clinical outcomes.Eligible patients (N=301) met the inclusion criteria for the Phase 2b randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.1 Patients were assigned in a 2:1:1:1:1 ratio to once-daily doses of placebo or baricitinib 1, 2, 4, or 8 mg, respectively. Those receiving 2 mg,...

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December 2016

Baricitinib, Methotrexate, or Combination in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and no or Limited Prior Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Treatment

Arthritis Rheumatol 2016. DOI 10.1002/art.39953. Accepted article

In this 52-week study of patients receiving initial therapy for RA, baricitinib alone or in combination with MTX demonstrated superior efficacy compared with MTX alone.Patients naïve to csDMARD (no or <3 doses of MTX) or bDMARD were randomised 4:3:4 (N=588) toMTX QW, baricitinib 4 mg QD or baricitinib 4 mg QD + MTX QW. The primary endpoint assessment was noninferiority of baricitinib monotherapy to MTX based on ACR20 response at Week 24.Not only was the primary endpoint met, baricitinib monother...

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July 2016

Efficacy and Safety of Baricitinib in Japanese Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis Receiving Background Methotrexate Therapy: A 12-week, Double-blind, Randomized Placebo-controlled Study

J Rheumatol. 2016;43(3):504–511.

Clinical trials have shown baricitinib once daily to be effective in patients with RA. However, this Janus kinase (JAK) 1/JAK2 inhibitor has not been evaluated in a Japanese population. In this 12-week, placebo-controlled study, 145 Japanese patients were enrolled and received placebo, 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg or 8 mg oral baricitinib daily. Efficacy results were encouraging and consistent with earlier trials. Significantly more baricitinib patients achieved ACR20 response at Week 12 of treatment compar...

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May 2016

Baricitinib in Patients with Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis

N Engl J Med. 2016 Mar 31;374(13):1243-52. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1507247

For patients who have an inadequate response or unacceptable side effects associated with biologic DMARDs, the options for treatment beyond conventional DMARDs are limited. This phase 3 trial of the JAK 1/2 inhibitor, baricitinib, studied its efficacy in bDMARD-IR patients. 527 patients were randomized to either baricitinib 2mg, 4mg or placebo for up to 24 weeks. At week 12 the primary endpoints were tested hierarchically to control type 1 error; these endpoints were ACR20, HAQ-DI score, DAS28-C...

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January 2015

The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety of baricitinib, an oral JAK 1/2 inhibitor, in healthy volunteers

Mod J Clin Pharmacol. 2014 Dec;54(12):1354-61. doi: 10.1002/jcph.354.

Current biologic therapies for RA, such as biologic cytokine inhibitors, which selectively target inflammatory molecules with an exquisite degree of specificity, are not clinically effective in all patients with rheumatoid arthritis. As such, there remains an unmet clinical need for more effective and better tolerated therapies. Baricitinib (LY3009104, also previously known as INCB028050) is a potent and selective small molecule inhibitor of JAK1/2, which play an important role in cytokine signa...

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December 2014

Safety and efficacy of baricitinib at 24 weeks in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to methotrexate

Ann Rheum Dis. 2015;74(2):333–340

Recent innovations in the treatment of RA have focused on the use of small molecules to inhibit intracellular kinases such as the JAK family. Baricitinib (LY3009104, formerly INCB028050) is an orally administered, potent, selective and reversible inhibitor of JAK1 and JAK2, which has shown anti-inflammatory effects, as well as preservation of cartilage and bone, in preclinical rodent studies.

This phase IIb study was designed to investigate multiple doses and dosing regimens of baricitin...

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April 2014

Molecular pathways: Molecular basis for sensitivity and resistance to JAK inhibitors

Clin Cancer Research doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-0279

Janus kinases (JAKs) mediate the regulation of a variety of cytokine signals with alterations in JAK1, JAK2, JAK3 and Tyk2 signalling contributing to many disease states including autoimmune diseases and haematological malignancies. Recently tofacitinib and ruxolitinib have been approved for treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and myelofibrosis respectively. Several JAK2 inhibitors, such as momelotinib and pacritinib, currently in development for myelofibrosis and the JAK1/2 inhibitor baricitinib...

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October 2013

Proposal for a new nomenclature of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs

Ann Rheum Dis 2013. doi: 10.1136/annrhuemdis-2013-204317

With the recent emergence of new therapeutics for rheumatoid arthritis, new nomenclature for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) may be needed to more accurately describe the new agents. Currently, DMARDs are divided into two broad groups: synthetic DMARDs (sDMARDs) and biological DMARDs (bDMARDs). The authors propose dividing synthetic DMARDs into conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) which would encompass traditional DMARDs (e.g. methotrexate, leflunomide), and targeted synthetic...

June 2013

Small molecules targeting JAKs—a new approach in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatology 2013: doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kes417

This article focuses on the development of new small molecular inhibitors of Janus kinases (Jaks) in clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Of these, tofacitinib is at the most advanced stage of its clinical development and this article includes an overview of the results from the main tofacitinib clinical trials to date. These include the ORAL-Start study in methotrexate (MTX)-naïve patients; ORAL-Scan in inadequate responders to MTX; ORAL-Solo and ORAL-Sync in inadequate responders to ...

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Selective inhibition of JAK1 and JAK2 is efficacious in rodent models of arthritis: preclinical characterization of INCB028050

Journal of Immunology 2010; 184(9):5298-307

This preclinical characterisation study examined the efficacy and tolerability of the small molecule INCB028050 (now known as baricitinib), an orally bioavailable, selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1/JAK2 inhibitor, in rodent models of arthritis. The decision to investigate its effects of INCB028050 followed positive evidence for the related compound ruxolitinib, the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib and the IL-6 inhibitor tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this preclinical study, INCB028050 was sh...

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