October 2017

Patient-reported Outcomes of Baricitinib in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and No or Limited Prior Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drug Treatment

Arthritis Res Ther. 2017 Sep 18;19(1):208

RA-BEGIN was a Phase 3, double-blind randomised active comparator-controlled study to evaluate baricitinib as monotherapy or in combination with MTX in patients with active RA who were naïve to csDMARDS and bDMARDS. In this analysis of the RA-BEGIN study, baricitinib alone or with MTX when used as initial therapy resulted in significant improvements in most patient-reported outcome measures compared with MTX. At baseline, study participants had active RA, impaired physical function, moderate le...

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Transaminase Levels and Hepatic Events During Tocilizumab Treatment: Pooled Analysis of Long-Term Clinical Trial Safety Data in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Sep;69(9):1751-1761. doi: 10.1002/art.40176

In this pooled analysis investigating liver enzyme abnormalities and hepatic adverse events (AEs) during long-term tocilizumab (TCZ) treatment for RA in clinical trials, although transaminase elevations were frequent, rates of hepatic serious AEs remained low. Data were pooled from patients who received ≥1 dose of IV TCZ with or without DMARDs in Phase 3 or 4 clinical trials, long-term extensions, and a pharmacology study.A total of 4171 patients were included in the all-exposure population with...

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May 2017

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 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 ...

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