Su et al. conducted a comprehensive systematic review and network meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of therapies for difficult-to-treat (D2T) RA. They found that tocilizumab and rituximab had superior efficacy and safety profiles, with 8mg every 4 weeks of tocilizumab identified as the optimal therapeutic dose.

Kandeel et al. compared JAK inhibitors and TNF inhibitors in RA. JAK inhibitors demonstrated better functional improvement via HAQ-DI but showed insignificant difference in CDAI compared to TNF inhibitors; both classes had similar safety.

September 2024

Mease et al. assessed the comparative effectiveness of bimekizumab and risankizumab in patients with PsA over 52 weeks using a matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC). The study included patients who were biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (bDMARD) naïve or had a prior inadequate response or intolerance to tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi-IR).

McInnes et al. reported that bimekizumab demonstrated sustained efficacy and safety over 52 weeks in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), regardless of concomitant methotrexate (MTX) use. Both bimekizumab groups (with and without MTX) showed similar improvements in achieving ACR50 and PASI100 responses.

August 2024

Risankizumab versus ustekinumab for moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease

N Engl J Med. 2024 Jul 18;391(3):213-223. DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa2314585

Risankizumab was noninferior to ustekinumab with respect to clinical remission at Week 24, and superior with respect to endoscopic remission at Week 48. This study aimed to present data from SEQUENCE, a direct head-to-head trial assessing the efficacy and safety of risankizumab vs ustekinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe CD, in whom at least one anti-TNF treatment had failed.

July 2024

Worth, et al. found that namilumab did not show efficacy compared with placebo in patients with active axSpA, but the treatment was generally well tolerated. An unusually high proportion of ASAS20 responders at Week 12 were observed in the placebo group, which had a small sample size compared to the namilumab arm.

Genetic variants in TNFα, NLRP3, MYD88, and FcRγ genes were associated with a response to TNFi, when assessing several inflammatory diseases together. Al-Sofi et al. conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genetic markers and their response to biologics in psoriasis, PsA, RA, IBD, and across all chronic inflammatory diseases together.

The outcomes of children born to mothers with autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Lancet Rheumatol 2024:S2665-9913(24)00096-1 doi: 10.1016/S2665-9913(24)00096-1 Epub ahead of print

This Series paper by Andreoli, et al. provides a comprehensive overview of the literature for pregnancy outcomes for mothers with autoimmune rheumatic disease, and provides guidance on discussing these topics with patients. They also provide a list of frequently asked questions related to pregnancy and children by women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

June 2024

Effect of bimekizumab on patient-reported disease impact in patients with psoriatic arthritis: 1-Year results from two Phase 3 studies

Journal Reference: Rheumatology 2024 Epub ahead of print doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keae277

Compared with placebo, bimekizumab-treated patients displayed a rapid clinically meaningful improvement in PsAID-12 scores at Week 4, which continued to Week 16 and was sustained to 1 year. Gossec et al. assessed 1-year bimekizumab efficacy from the patient perspective using the PsAID-12 questionnaire in bDMARD-naïve (BE OPTIMAL) and TNFi-IR (BE COMPLETE) patients with active PsA.

May 2024

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.