Publications

Tofacitinib as induction and maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis

N Engl J Med. 2017 May 4;376(18):1723-1736. DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa1606910

Sandborn WJ,

Su C,

Sands BE,

D'Haens GR,

Vermeire S,

Schreiber S,

Danese S,

Feagan BG,

Reinisch W,

Niezychowski W,

Friedman G,

Lawendy N,

Yu D,

Woodworth D,

Mukherjee A,

Zhang H,

Healey P,

Panés J; OCTAVE Induction 1,

OCTAVE Induction 2,

and OCTAVE Sustain Investigators

Tofacitinib, at a dose of 10 mg twice daily, was more effective than placebo for induction of remission and mucosal healing in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Furthermore, maintenance therapy with tofacitinib, at a dose of either 5 mg or 10 mg twice daily, was more effective than placebo in sustaining remission and mucosal healing.

Keywords:

• Efficacy,
• Safety,
• Tofacitinib

Effect of Glucocorticoids on the Clinical and Radiographic Efficacy of Tofacitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Posthoc Analysis of Data from 6 Phase III studies

J Rheumatol 2018 Feb; 45(2):177-87

Charles-Schoeman C,

van der Heijde D,

Bumester GR,

Nash P,

Zerbini CAF,

Connell CA,

Fan H,

Kwok K,

Bananis E,

Fleischmann R

In this post hoc analysis, six Phase 3 studies were used to analyse the effect of glucocorticoids (GC) on the efficacy of tofacitinib (TOF) in patients with RA. Concomitant use of GC did not affect the clinical or radiographic outcomes of patients treated with TOF. Data from all six clinical trials were evaluated, with four studies (ORAL Scan, ORAL Standard, ORAL Sync and ORAL Step) being pooled for analysis. In these studies, MTX was used as a comparison and patients were required to maintain a...

Keywords:

• JAK,
• Tofacitinib,
• Phase 3,
• Meta analysis,
• Radiographic

Successful Treatment of Arthritis Induced by Checkpoint Inhibitors with Tocilizumab: a Case Series

Ann Rheum Dis 2017;76:2061-64. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-211560

Kim ST,

Tayar J,

Trinh VA,

Suarez-Almazor M,

Garcia S,

Hwu P,

Johnson DH,

Uemura M,

Diab A

This case series evaluated the use of tocilizumab (TCZ) as an effective treatment for patients who develop arthritis as an adverse event (AE) of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) cancer treatment. Results suggested that TCZ was an effective treatment, as it reduced the arthritis disease progression.ICIs have been defined as a revolutionary treatment for metastatic melanomas; however, a common AE is the development of polyarthritis. Current arthritis treatments reduce the efficiency of ICI therap...

Tofacitinib Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Direct Comparison Study between Biologic-naive and Experienced Patients

Intern Med. 2018 Mar 1;57(5):663-670. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.9341-17

Mori S,

Yoshitama T,

Ueki Y

This 6-month prospective direct comparison study analysed the effectiveness of tofacitinib (TOF) therapy on bDMARD-naïve and bDMARD-experienced patients. bDMARD-naïve patients were more responsive to TOF therapy than bDMARD-experienced patients.The study analysed the data of 113 patients diagnosed with high or moderate disease activity, defined using CDAI scores. All patients had failed to achieve CDAI low disease activity or remission with MTX therapy for ≥3 months. Patients were given 5 mg TOF...

Keywords:

• JAK,
• Tofacitinib,
• Phase 4

Safety and Efficacy of Baricitinib in Elderly Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

RMD Open. 2017; 3(2): e000546. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2017-000546

Fleischmann R,

Alam J,

Arora V,

Bradley J,

Schlichting DE,

Muram D,

Smolen JS

In this post hoc analysis of pooled data from two randomised controlled trials, RA-BUILD and RA-BEAM, age was shown not to be a contraindication for use of baricitinib. Patients in RA-BUILD were csDMARD-inadequate responder(IR) patients who received an oral placebo or 2 mg or 4 mg baricitinib once daily. Patients in RA-BEAM were MTX-IR patients and received an oral placebo, 4 mg baricitinib once daily or subcutaneous adalimumab every 2 weeks. Efficacy and safety of baricitinib in elderly patient...

Keywords:

• JAK,
• Baricitinib,
• Safety,
• Elderly

Evaluation of Newly Proposed Remission Cut-points for Disease Activity Score in 28 Joints (DAS28) in Rheumatoid Arthritis upon IL-6 Pathway Inhibition

Arthritis Res Ther. 2017 Jul 4;19(1):155. doi: 10.1186/s13075-017-1346-5

Schoels M,

Alasti F,

Smolen JS and Aletaha D

DAS28 is not currently included in the joint remission definitions of the ACR and the EULAR because its formula is disproportionately influenced by Acute Phase Response (APR).IL-6 pathway blockers or JAK inhibitors greatly reduce APR, causing patients to be classed as in DAS28 remission despite still having multiple swollen joints.To make DAS28 remission criteria more stringent, the alternative cut-points of <1.9 and <2.2 for CRP and ESR, respectively, have been proposed.This study questioned th...

Efficacy and Safety of Tofacitinib Monotherapy, Tofacitinib with Methotrexate, and Adalimumab with Methotrexate in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (ORAL Strategy): A Phase 3b/4, Double-Blind, Head-To-Head, Randomised Controlled Trial

Lancet. 2017 Jul 29;390(10093):457-468. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31618-5

Fleischmann R,

Mysler E,

Hall S,

Kivitz A,

Moots R,

Luo Z,

DeMasi R,

Soma K,

Zhang R,

Takiya L,

Tatulych S,

Mojcik C,

Krishnaswami S,

Menon S,

Smolen J,

on behalf of the ORAL Strategy investigators

In this first head-to-head non-inferiority trial assessing a JAKi ± MTX directly compared with a TNFi + MTX in patients with RA, tofacitinib (TOF) + MTX showed non-inferiority to adalimumab (ADA) + MTX. Non-inferiority was not shown for TOF monotherapy versus TOF + MTX, or versus ADA + MTX.In this 52-week study, MTX-inadequate responder (IR) patients were randomised 1:1:1 to receive TOF 5 mg BID monotherapy, TOF 5 mg BID + MTX or ADA 40 mg every other week + MTX. The primary endpoint, ACR50 resp...

Keywords:

• JAK,
• Tofacitinib,
• Phase 4,
• Phase 3

Pathogenetic Insights from the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Lancet 2017;389:2328–37 DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31472-1

McInnes I,

Schett G

This review paper examines the understanding gained from looking at the effects of specific immune interventions in the treatment of RA.The introduction of novel IL-6 agents has provided the ideal opportunity to explore the distinct effect of cytokine inhibition, as opposed to receptor inhibition, at the molecular level. Mechanistic insights into TNF could also be obtained in the future with advanced molecular and informatics approaches, and future biopsy studies will be important to explore the...

Keywords:

• Basic Science,
• Review

Biologics or Tofacitinib for People with Rheumatoid Arthritis Naïve to Methotrexate: a Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis

Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 May 8;5:CD012657. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012657

Singh JA,

Hossain A,

Tanjong Ghogomu E,

Mudano AS,

Tanjong Ghogomu E,

Suarez-Almazor ME,

Buchbinder R,

Maxwell LJ,

Tugwell P,

Wells GA

This Cochrane systemic review and network meta-analysis looked at the benefits and harms of biologics or tofacitinib in patients with RA not previously treated with MTX.Using data from 19 RCTs including 6,485 participants, the review found that biologics (abatacept, adalimumab, etanercept, golimumab, infliximab, rituximab) in combination with MTX improved signs and symptoms of RA (ACR50) and increased the chances of remission (DAS <1.6 or DAS28 <2.6). There was also some evidence of an improveme...

Keywords:

• JAK,
• Tofacitinib,
• Meta analysis,
• Review

Tocilizumab Combination Therapy or Monotherapy or Methotrexate Monotherapy in Methotrexate-naïve Patients with Early Rheumatoid Arthritis: 2-year Clinical and Radiographic Results from the Randomized, Placebo-controlled FUNCTION Trial

Ann Rheum Dis Published Online First: 7 April 2017. Doi 10.1136/annrheumdis-20160210561

Burmester GR,

Rigby WF,

van Vollenhoven RF,

Kay J,

Rubbert-Roth A,

Blanco R,

Kadva A and Dimonaco S

Burmester et al. present data showing that 52-week efficacy and safety of intravenous tocilizumab plus methotrexate, or tocilizumab monotherapy are maintained through to Week 104 in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. Patients were assigned to four treatment groups: 4 mg/kg TCZ + MTX, 8 mg/kg TCZ + MTX, 8 mg/kg TCZ + placebo or placebo + MTX. Patients not achieving DAS28 ≤3.2 at Week 52 and who were not receiving 8 mg/kg TCZ were rescued to 8 mg/kg TCZ + MTX. Of the 1162 randomly assigned ...

Keywords:

• IL-6,
• Tocilizumab,
• Phase 3,
• Radiographic