July 2023

Improvement in Patient-reported Outcomes and Work Productivity Following 3-year Ustekinumab or Tumour Necrosis Factor Inhibitor Treatment in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis: Results from the PsABio Real-world Study

Arthritis Res Ther. 2023 Jun 23;25(1):109. doi: 10.1186/s13075-023-03058-y

Results from the 3-year PsABio study demonstrated that, generally, ustekinumab and TNFi treatment led to an improvement in PROs. In coming to this conclusion, researchers aimed to evaluate the real-world effect of ustekinumab or a TNFi on PRO and their association with effectiveness endpoints in PsA patients over 3 years.

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Apremilast Long‑Term Safety Up to 5 Years from 15 Pooled Randomized, placebo‑Controlled Studies of Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Behçet’s Syndrome

Am J Clin Dermatol. 2023;24(5):809-820 doi: 10.1007/s40257-023-00783-7

This study confirms the safety of long-term apremilast use in patients with plaque PsO, active PsA, or oral ulcers associated with Behçet’s syndrome. In coming to this conclusion, investigators conducted a pooled analysis of apremilast data from 15 clinical studies with open-label extension phases, focusing on long-term safety.

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Baricitinib in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: An International, Phase 3, Randomised, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Withdrawal, Efficacy, and Safety Trial

Lancet. 2023;402(10401):555–570 doi 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00921-2

Phase 3 trial of baricitinib demonstrates efficacy with acceptable safety profile in polyarticular and extended oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, juvenile psoriatic arthritis and enthesitis-related arthritis.

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Comparative Effectiveness of First-Line Baricitinib in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Australian OPAL Data Set

ACR Open Rheumatol. 2023;5(7):345-353 doi 10.1002/acr2.11577

Cicirello, et al. present results showing that baricitinib is comparable in treatment persistence with TNF inhibitors. However, treatment persistence up to 24 months was significantly longer for baricitinib, but the effect size of one month is not clinically meaningful.

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Post Hoc Analysis of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Under Clinical Remission in Two Japanese Phase 3 Trials of Peficitinib Treatment (RAJ3 and RAJ4)

Mod Rheumatol 2023;34(3):453–65 doi: 10.1093/mr/road059

Pots hoc analysis of peficitinib Phase 3 trials shows that continued treatment with peficitinib up to Week 52 is linked to improved remission rates in Asian patients with RA.

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Tofacitinib versus Methotrexate as the First-line Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drugs in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Open-label Randomized Controlled Trial

Int J Rheum Dis. 2023;26(9):1729–1736 doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.14801

This single-centre study by Khan, et al. suggests that high-dose methotrexate (25 mg/week, subcutaneously) may be as efficacious as tofacitinib in patients with established RA who are DMARD naïve or have not received a therapeutic dose of DMARDs.

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Safety profile of upadacitinib in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease: integrated post hoc analysis of the SELECT phase III rheumatoid arthritis clinical programme

Ann Rheum Dis. 2023 doi: 10.1136/ard-2023-223916

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.

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June 2023

Sustained low functional impairment in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA): Which are the primary outcomes that should be targeted to achieve this?

Arthritis Research & Therapy (2023) 25:70 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37118833/

This real-world study showed that sustained BASDAI <3 may be a valid and feasible target for a treat-to-target strategy in AxSpA, having function as treatment goal.

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Effect of Body Mass Index on Treatment Response of Biologic/ Targeted-Synthetic DMARDs in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis or Axial Spondyloarthritis. A Systematic Review

Autoimmunity Reviews 22 (2023) 103357

The study demonstrated that obesity is a factor that could play a role in treatment decision-making in people living with inflammatory arthritis (IA). It appears that efficacy of TNFi is affected by patients’ weight/BMI in all forms of IA, while this is not the case for TCZ and ABA in RA, as well for IL-17 and IL-23 inhibitors in PsA.

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Two‑Year Imaging Outcomes from a Phase 3 Randomized Trial of Secukinumab in Patients with Non‑Radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis

Arthritis Res Ther. 2023;16;25(1):80 doi 10.1186/s13075-023-03051-5

Braun et al. studied a large cohort of patients with nr-axSpA, that demonstrated a secukinumab reduced SI joint inflammation (BME), this reduction was sustained over 104 weeks, from an overall low baseline level of spinal inflammation or structural damage.

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