November 2022

Risk of major adverse cardiovascular and venous thromboembolism events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis exposed to JAK inhibitors versus adalimumab: a nationwide cohort study

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022. doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-222824

Real-world population study of patients with RA provides reassuring data regarding the risks of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and venous thromboembolism events (VTEs) in patients initiating a JAKinib versus adalimumab, including patients at high risk of cardiovascular diseases.

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October 2022

Venous Thromboembolism with JAK Inhibitors and Other Immune-Modulatory Drugs: a Swedish Comparative Safety Study Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022. doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-223050

Nationwide register-based study in Sweden finds that patients with RA treated with JAKinibs in routine clinical practice are at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), compared with those treated with bDMARDs, an increase numerically confined to pulmonary embolism.

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September 2022

Olokizumab versus Placebo or Adalimumab in Rheumatoid Arthritis

N Engl J Med. 2022;387(8):715–726. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2201302

Phase 3 trial of olokizumab, a direct inhibitor of the IL-6 ligand, demonstrates superiority to placebo with respect to an ACR20 response at week 12 and noninferiority to adalimumab (all combined with methotrexate), in patients with RA.

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Impact of initial therapy with upadacitinib or adalimumab on achievement of 48-week treatment goals in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: post hoc analysis of SELECT-COMPARE

Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022. Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac477

Post hoc analysis findings provide the first data evaluating the importance of treatment order with JAKinib vs TNFi as initial therapy, suggesting that a JAKinib first strategy leads to more rapid improvements in treatment outcomes following csDMARD failure.

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Infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis receiving tofacitinib versus tumour necrosis factor inhibitors: results from the open-label, randomised controlled ORAL Surveillance trial

doi: 10.1136/ard-2022-222405

Post hoc analysis, using the final dataset from ORAL Surveillance, reveals a higher risk of non-serious infections and herpes zoster with tofacitinib vs TNFi, and higher risk of serious infection events with tofacitinib 10 mg BID versus TNFi, particularly in patients aged ≥65 years.

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August 2022

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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June 2022

Unincreased risk of hospitalized infection under targeted therapies versus methotrexate in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective cohort study

Arthritis Res Ther. 2022 doi: 10.1186/s13075-022-02807-9

Retrospective, longitudinal, population-based study shows that despite an overall higher incidence of hospitalised infection (HI) in both elderly and older elderly patients compared to young patients, the risks of HI in patients exposed to targeted therapy versus MTX is not significantly increased.

Effectiveness of TNF-inhibitors, abatacept, IL6-inhibitors and JAK-inhibitors in 31 846 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in 19 registers from the ‘JAK-pot’ collaboration

Ann Rheum Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2022-222586

Observational study of data, from large international collective of registers, finds similar overall drug retention rates between RA treatment groups.

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Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with conventional, targeted and biological disease‑modifying antirheumatic drugs in the setting of liver injury and non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease

Rheumatol Int. 2022 doi: 10.1007/s00296-022-05143-y

An increased incidence of liver diseases emphasizes greater caution in prescribing antirheumatic drugs, owing to their hepatotoxicity. However, drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in RA patients represents an aetiological and therapeutic challenge, due to the intertwining of inflammatory and metabolic elements mediated by IL-6 and TNF-α.

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Short- and longer-term cancer risks with biologic and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs as used against rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice

Rheumatology (Oxford) 2022 doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab570

Observational, nationwide cohort study finds no increased risk for cancer overall in RA patients treated with TNFis, anti-CD20 or anti-IL6.

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