August 2022

Efficacy and Safety of Secukinumab in Patients with Spondyloarthritis and Enthesitis at the Achilles Tendon: Results From a Phase 3b Trial

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab784

Secukinumab improves the burden of heel enthesitis as assessed by patient and physician reported outcomes in patients with active SpA refractory to standard treatment. In coming to this conclusion, the ACHILLES trial aimed to demonstrate the efficacy of secukinumab on Achilles’ tendon enthesitis in SpA patients.

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Incident and Recurrent Herpes Zoster for First-Line bDMARD and tsDMARD Users in Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Arthritis Res Ther. 2022;24(1):180

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.

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July 2022

Efficacy and Safety of Upadacitinib for Active Ankylosing Spondylitis Refractory to Biological Therapy: A Double-blind, Randomised, Placebo-controlled Phase 3 Trial

Ann Rheum Dis 2022 doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-222608

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.

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Factors Associated with Drug-free Remission at 5-year in Early Onset Axial Spondyloarthritis Patients: Data from the DESIR Cohort

Joint Bone Spine. 2022 doi.org/10.1016/j.jbspin.2022.105358

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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Is the Risk of Infection Higher During Treatment with Secukinumab than with TNF-inhibitors? An Observational Study from the Nordic Countries

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac358

Glintborg B et al, highlight in their recent research from the Nordic countries, that there is a low frequency of hospitalised infections during treatment with secukinumab or TNFi in patients with SpA and PsA. In clinical practice, secukinumab was found to double absolute risk of 1st year hospitalised infection compared with adalimumab, with the other TNFi treatments falling in between.

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Baseline Disease Activity Predicts Achievement of cDAPSA Treatment Targets with Apremilast: Phase III Results in DMARD-naïve Patients With Psoriatic Arthritis

J Rheumatol. 2022 doi: 10.3899/jrheum.210906

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.

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Efficacy and safety of ixekizumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis with and without concomitant conventional disease‑modifying antirheumatic drugs: SPIRIT‑P1 and SPIRIT‑P2 3‑year results

Clin Rheumatol. 2022 doi: 10.1007/s10067-022-06218-8

In this investigation ixekizumab showed sustained efficacy in PsA therapy for up to three years in both monotherapy and combination with MTX or a csDMARD. Here, investigators set out to evaluate the three-year efficacy and safety of ixekizumab with and without csDMARD use in patients with active PsA.

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Guselkumab provides sustained domain-specific and comprehensive efficacy using composite indices in patients with active psoriatic arthritis

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac375

This analysis found that patients with active PsA who receive treatment with guselkumab can achieve robust and sustained low disease activity or remission. In reaching this conclusion investigators sought to evaluate the efficacy of guselkumab for the treatment of active PsA through the use of composite indices.

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Effect of bimekizumab on symptoms and impact of disease in patients with psoriatic arthritis over 3 years: results from BE ACTIVE

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac353

Here bimekizumab was associated with long-term reductions in disease activity and disease impact on patients with PsA. This investigation set out to evaluate the long-term effects of bimekizumab treatment on the key symptoms of PsA and the resulting impact on patient function and HRQoL.

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