Bimekizumab is associated with sustained, long-term efficacy in r-axSpA patinets across three years of treatment. In coming to this conclusion, investigators sought to assess the long-term safety, tolerability, and efficacy of bimekizumab in active r-axSpA.

In this study risankizumab treatment resulted in greater improvements in fatigue and pain than placebo. Prior to this finding the study aimed to evaluate the impact of risankizumab on HRQoL and other PROs among patients with active PsA and inadequate response or intolerance to csDMARD-IR in the KEEPsAKE 1 trial.

Herpes zoster (HZ) risk is significantly increased in seropositive RA patients with a history of HZ after the initiation of bDMARDs or tsDMARD. It is now well known that the incidence and recurrence of HZ are quite common in patients with RA in real-world clinical settings, yet there is limited evidence regarding bDMARD-dependent HZ risk among patients with a history of HZ prior to bDMARD use.

In this investigation bimekizumab was associated with a sustained ACR50 improvement. This was highlighted following the attempt to describe the long-term safety, tolerability, and efficacy of up to three years of bimekizumab treatment in PsA patients

Upadacitinib significantly improved the signs and symptoms of nr-axSpA compared with placebo at Week 14 in this investigation. Prior to this, upadacitinib had been shown to be effective in patients with AS. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of upadacitinib in non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis.

July 2022

Van der Heijde et al., carried out a study to show whether upadacitinib offers an effective treatment option for bDMARD-naïve and bDMARD-IR patients with active AS. Their results indicated that upadacitinib 15 mg significantly improved the signs and symptoms of active AS. The treatment was well tolerated for 14 weeks in bDMARD-IR patients, consistent with results observed in the upadacitinib AS bDMARD-naïve study.

This study from Ruyssen-Witrand et al, highlights that the probability of being in drug free remission at 5-year in patients with recent onset of axSpA is low. The study was performed to investigate the possible association between demographic, clinical, biological and imaging characteristics and drug-free remission at 5 years.

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Established machine learning approaches, based on ligand similarity, identified previously unknown off-target interactions of baricitinib and tofacitinib, and adds to the evidence that these JAK inhibitors are promiscuous binders, and highlight the potential for repurposing.

Baseline disease activity, as measured by cDAPSA, predicts the achievement of treatment targets in DMARD-naïve patients post- apremilast treatment. To come to this conclusion Mease, et al.  analysed data from the PALACE 4 clinical trial which investigated apremilast in DMARD-naïve patients. 175 patients receiving 30mg apremilast from baseline with cDAPSA data available, were analysed.