Long-term SC maintenance therapy of q8w and q12w ustekinumab in patients who responded to IV ustekinumab induction was safe and effective at maintaining symptomatic remission. Investigators aimed to present the final efficacy and safety results of the UNIFI LTE study through 4 years.

In this letter to the editor, Papp, et al. reported that brodalumab treatment in patients with psoriasis and an inadequate response to another biologic resulted in high rates of complete skin clearance with concurrent improvements in patient-reported outcomes after 26 weeks. The mean and median times to PASI 100 were 96.8 and 112 days, respectively.

May 2024

More RA patients on upadacitinib versus adalimumab achieved clinical remission, LDA, and DAS28 (CRP) <2.6. Radiographic progression was less with continuous upadacitinib versus continuous adalimumab. Upadacitinib showed similar safety to adalimumab, with higher incidences of HZ, lymphopenia, CPK elevation, hepatic disorder and nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Goldman, et al. conducted a pharmacovigilance study to evaluate the cardiovascular safety of JAK inhibitors in RA patients. The study demonstrated an increase in the reporting of VTE, stroke, and ischemic heart disease in patients treated with JAK inhibitor compared to bDMARDs, especially within the first year of treatment. This suggests a class effect of JAK inhibitors on cardiovascular risk, emphasising the need for ongoing surveillance and proactive cardiovascular risk management.

The 1-year results of the SELECT-AXIS 2 study showed significant improvements in ASAS40 achievement in patients with nr-axSpA that were treated with upadacitinib 15mg QD versus placebo. Improvements in ASDAS endpoints, back pain, BASFI, and hsCRP from baseline were also observed.

Shu, et al. identified 37 preferred terms as unexpected AEs following risankizumab treatment, and found 48 AEs with an increased risk of risankizumab-induced AE severity. They also identified that risankizumab signal strengths were significantly higher in eight system organ classes.

Long-term clinical outcomes of certolizumab pegol treatment in non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis stratified by baseline MRI and CRP status

RMD Open 2024;10:e003884 doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2023-003884 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38724259/

The safety follow-up extension of the C-axSpAnd trial showed that long-term clinical outcomes from certolizumab pegol treatment achieved after 1 year were generally sustained at 3 years across MRI+/CRP+, MRI−/CRP+ and MRI+/CRP− subgroups.

Crude gastrointestinal perforation (GIP) incidence rate was higher for the JAKi group compared with those receiving adalimumab, however rates of GIP did not differ between JAKi and adalimumab groups in the weighted and adjusted model. Hoisnard et al compared the risk of GIP in patients initiating treatment with JAKis or adalimumab among real-world patients with rheumatic disease.

April 2024

Risankizumab therapy was associated with significant and sustained improvement in multiple disease domains from Week 52 through Week 100, compared with placebo. Kristensen et al. investigated the safety, efficacy and tolerability of 100-week risankizumab therapy in PsA patients with previous inadequate response to ≥1 csDMARD, using data from KEEPsAKE 1 trial.

The 2023 EULAR recommendations provided an updated consensus on the pharmacological management of PsA with a new overarching principle and recommendation for 2023. Recent MOA safety data emphasised the importance of patient-specific benefit-risk profiling in JAKi therapy, and extra-musculoskeletal (MSK) manifestations related to PsA should be considered during drug selection.