May 2020

An Integrated Analysis of the Safety of Tofacitinib in Psoriatic Arthritis Across Phase III and Long Term Extension Studies with Comparison to Real World Observational Data

Drug Saf. 2020;43:379-392

Patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) had similar safety profile with TOF to that of other systemic therapies in real-world settings, except for the known risk of HZ. Treatment recommendations from EULAR and GRAPPA for patients with PsA vary according to adverse prognostic risk factors, disease manifestations and responsiveness to prior treatment. Safety concerns for most PsA therapies include gastrointestinal AEs, hepatotoxicity, opportunistic infections (OIs) including TB, and SIEs. This stu...

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April 2020

Relative Efficacy and Safety of Tofacitinib, Baricitinib, Upadacitinib, and Filgotinib in Comparison to Adalimumab in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis

Z Rheumatol. 2020 DOI: 10.1007/s00393-020-00750-1

This Bayesian network meta-analysis, comparing the relative efficacy and safety of JAK inhibitors, determined BARI 4mg + MTX and UPA 15mg + MTX were the most effective. The analysis included 5451 patients with an inadequate response to MTX and active RA, from four RCTs. Relative effects were converted into a probability allowing each treatment to be ranked. BARI and UPA had significantly higher ACR20 response rates than ADA 40mg + MTX whilst TOF 5mg and FIL 200mg had comparable ACR20 response ra...

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IgA Vasculitis Developed as an Adverse Effect of Tofacitinib Taken for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Intern Med. 2020;59(6):817-821

Nephrotoxicity is a key side effect of NSAIDs and DMARDs used to treat RA, while biologics can reportedly cause proliferative glomerulonephritis or crescentic glomerulonephritis. This report reviews a patient on TOF presenting IgA vasculitis as an adverse effect that fully resolved following termination of TOF.Drug induced IgA vasculitis has been previously described for anti-TNFɑ therapies, but this is the first report with JAK inhibitor therapy. This is a case report of a 67-year old woman wit...

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December 2019

Two-Year Safety and Effectiveness of Peficitinib in Moderate-To-Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Phase IIb, Open-Label Extension Study

Rheumatol Ther . 2019 Dec;6(4):503-520. doi: 10.1007/s40744-019-00167-6. Epub 2019 Aug 13.

Peficitinib (PEF) 100 mg QD demonstrated a stable safety profile and sustained effectiveness in patients with moderate-to-severe RA in a two-year extension of two global phase IIb studies. Patients enrolled in the LTE had completed one of two 12-week phase IIb PEF trials, one with MTX and one without. The primary objective of the LTE was to assess treatment-emergent adverse events and clinical laboratory evaluations for 105 weeks. As a secondary objective, an additional 2-years of effectiveness ...

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Safety of Baricitinib in East Asian Patients With Moderate to Severe Active Rheumatoid Arthritis: An Integrated Analysis From Clinical Trials

Int J Rheum Dis . 2020 Jan;23(1):65-73. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13748.

Post-hoc analyses of five completed phase II and III trials and an ongoing LTE suggested that BARI QD is well tolerated in East Asian patients with moderate-to-severe RA, with a similar safety and tolerability profile to the overall population.The majority of clinical evidence for RA treatments has been obtained from a predominantly Caucasian population, which may not be relevant to East Asian patients. In this post-hoc safety analysis, 740 Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean and Chinese patients were i...

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November 2019

Exposure-Response Analyses of Upadacitinib Efficacy and Safety in Phase 2 and 3 Studies to Support Benefit-Risk Assessment in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Clin Pharmacol Ther . 2020 Apr;107(4):994-1003. doi: 10.1002/cpt.1671.

UPA 15 mg provided the optimal benefit-risk in RA through maximizing efficacy with only small incremental benefit with 30 mg, and with consistency across RA subpopulations and with UPA monotherapy or combination with csDMARDs. Exposure-response analyses were conducted using combined data from two Phase 2b and five Phase 3 studies in order to characterise the relationship between plasma exposure and efficacy, as well as to select safety parameters using the totality of the data in subjects with R...

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Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Peficitinib 25, 50, 100, and 150 mg in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Bayesian Network Meta‑Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Clin Drug Investig .2020 Jan;40(1):65-72. doi: 10.1007/s40261-019-00863-9.

PEF 50, 100, and 150 mg once daily was effective in treating active RA, without causing a significant risk for AEs.Intracellular pathways, including JAK and Tyk-2, are critical for immune cell activation, pro-inflammatory cytokine production, and cytokine signaling. PEF has been developed for use in RA, but the comparative efficacy and safety of regimens and dosages has not been established. A Bayesian network meta-analysis was conducted to combine direct and indirect evidence to assess the rela...

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A systematic review and meta-analysis of infection risk with small molecule JAK inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2019;58(10):1755–66

Absolute serious infection rates were low. However, across the JAKinibs, the incidence of HZ is higher than expected for the population. While the risk was numerically greatest with BARI, indirect comparisons between the drugs did not demonstrate any significant difference in risk. How JAKinibs increase the risk of HZ reactivation is unclear, but how different JAKs interact in the immune response suggest that there may be differences in safety profiles between JAKinib drugs, underpinned by their...

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Tofacitinib Modulates the VZV-specific CD4+ T Cell Immune Response in vitro in Lymphocytes of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2019;58(11):2051–60

TOF significantly modulated the Th1 response to Varicella-zoster-virus (VZV). The poor VZV-specific cellular immune responses in patients with RA may be considered in recommendations regarding appropriate vaccination strategies for enhancing the VZV-specific Th1 response.Previous studies have shown that treatment with JAKinibs increases HZ incidence compared with conventional DMARDs. This cross-sectional in vitro study aimed to investigate the effect of TOF on the VZV-specific T cell immune resp...

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August 2019

Effect of Filgotinib vs Placebo on Clinical Response in Patients with Moderate to Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Refractory to Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug Therapy: The FINCH 2 Randomized Clinical Trial

JAMA 2019 322(4):315-325

Among RA patients with an inadequate response or intolerance to bDMARDs, filgotinib (FIL) doses, compared to PBO resulted in significantly greater proportions achieving a clinical response at Wk12.Patients with active RA despite treatment with bDMARD therapy need treatment options. The FINCH 2 Phase 3 study compared the effects of FIL vs PBO for the treatment of RA patients with inadequate response or intolerance to ≥1 prior bDMARDs. Patients were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio, receiving FIL 200 m...

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