Significant improvements in overall disease activity, enthesitis and dactylitis, and skin psoriasis were observed by Week 8 and maintained or improved through Week 100 in both guselkumab treatment groups. Coates et al conducted a post-hoc analysis of the Phase 3 DISCOVER-2 trial to investigate the long-term (100-week) efficacy of guselkumab across GRAPPA-identified PsA domains.

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.

Bimekizumab was superior to placebo in achieving ACR, MDA, and PASI outcomes and had an acceptable safety profile. This meta-analysis also showed that 160mg and 320mg doses of bimekizumab were both superior to placebo in achieving these outcome measures.

Burmester, et al. found that long-term filgotinib exposure was well tolerated in patients with moderate-to-severe active RA, with a stable rate of TEAEs over time. However, potential dose-dependent relationships for herpes zoster infections, malignancies and all-cause mortality were observed in patients aged ≥65 years, indicating the potential impact of age on the safety profile of Filgotinib. Therefore, some patients aged ≥65 years may benefit from the filgotinib 100 mg dose option.

The 5-year benefit-risk profile for upadacitinib in RA remains favourable, with clinical outcomes improved or maintained through Week 260. No new safety findings were identified during the LTE. Results remained consistent with earlier analyses of SELECT-NEXT.

In the treatment of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), there is a need for feasible measures of patient-reported bother (impact on life and cumulative burden) from side effects and the benefit-harm-balance. Berthelsen et al. evaluated what with RMDs considered important to know about symptomatic side effects they may experience from a new prescription drug.

Risk of composite CV endpoints combining all ischaemic CV events and heart failure were similar for individual and combined TOF doses versus TNFi. The totality of CV risk (MACE-8 plus VTE) was higher with TOF 10mg twice daily versus TNFi. Buch et al conducted a post-hoc analysis on the ORAL Surveillance trial to assess risk across extended MACE endpoints in RA patients treated with either TOF 5mg, TOF 10mg, or TNFi.

Results of this analysis by Hernández-Cruz, et al. show that infections, herpes zoster and gastrointestinal AEs in patients with RA tended to be more frequent with JAKi treatment versus TNFi. They also found that treatment persistence was similar with JAKi and TNFi in patients with RA and axSpA, and only slightly higher for TNFi in patients with PsA.

March 2024

No new safety signals were found in the three-year safety data on bimekizumab for plaque PsO. Additionally, incidence of oral candidiasis significantly decreased with each subsequent year.