Bimekizumab was well tolerated in patients with PsA and TNFi-IR up to 52 weeks, with a safety profile consistent with that observed in prior studies. This study aimed to assess 52-week safety and efficacy of bimekizumab in patients with active PsA and prior IR/intolerance to TNFi.

February 2024

Efficacy and safety of JAK inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis: update for the practising clinician

Nat Rev Rheumatol 2024;20(2):101–115 DOI: 10.1038/s41584-023-01062-9

The observed benefit:risk ratio strongly favours JAKi use in the majority of patients, and HCPs should consider and adhere to guidance on high-risk patients where applicable. Szekanecz et al summarised the safety and efficacy of approved JAKis tofacitinib, baricitinib, upadacitinib, and filgotinib to aid in clinical decision making.

Effectiveness and Safety of Filgotinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Real-life Multicentre Experience

Clin Exp Rheumatol 2024 doi 10.55563/clinexprheumatol/k78ug3 Epub ahead of print

This real-world observational study by La Barbera, et al. confirms that filgotinib is efficacious and safe for use in the management of RA. The authors also report that improvements in clinical and laboratory features were greater in bDMARD-naïve patients with RA.

Tofacitinib treatment resulted in a significant simultaneous improvement of both metabolic and inflammatory parameters in RA patients with T2D. Due to increasing evidence for a link between RA, insulin resistance and T2D Di Muzio et al. investigated if consecutively recruited RA patients on tofacitinib therapy showed improvement in HOMA2-IR values over 6 months.

Therapeutic intervention during the at-risk phase of RA with abatacept is feasible, with acceptable safety profiles. However, the efficacy of intermittent administration at multiple intervals remains to be assessed.

Charles-Schoeman, et al. carried out a descriptive integrated analysis on patients with RA that were treated in the SELECT programme, with up to 6.5 years of exposure. They concluded that upadacitinib 15 mg QD had an acceptable safety profile, but long-term upadacitinib treatment was associated with dose-dependent laboratory abnormalities.

This pooled analysis of four Phase 3 RCTs investigated the long-term efficacy baricitinib in patients with active RA who were MTX-IR, csDMARD-IR, or bDMARD-IR. They found that baricitinib demonstrated efficacy up to 6.5 years and was well tolerated.

Secukinumab efficacy regarding PROs and retention rate was comparable between axSpA and PsA patient groups when adjusted for confounders. Christiansen et al compared 6-, 12- and 24-month pain, fatigue, PGA, and HAQ PROs in axSpA and PsA patients treated with secukinumab, as well as 24-monthy retention rates in this real-world study.  

This study reports that the PsAID-12 total score and individual PsAID items capturing disease concepts important to patients with PsA demonstrated robust psychometric properties.

Effectiveness of Sequential Lines of Biologic and Targeted Small Molecule Drugs in Psoriatic Arthritis: A Systematic Review

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2024 Jan 18:keae006 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keae006 Epub ahead of print

The authors found that there is a reduction in effectiveness of lines of bDMARDs after first-line in PsA, with inadequate data to determine response to tsDMARDs.

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