medwireNews: The benefits of treatment with ixekizumab are maintained for up to 1 year in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, suggest follow-up results from the phase III COAST-V and COAST-W trials.
The main results from these trials, reported previously by medwireNews, demonstrated that biologic-naïve (COAST-V) and tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi)-experienced (COAST-W) patients who were treated with the interleukin-17A inhibitor experienced significant improvement in the signs and symptoms of disease at week 16 relative to those given placebo.
In the follow-up study, Maxime Dougados (Université Paris Descartes, France) and co-investigators found that ASAS40 response rates among ixekizumab-treated patients remained similar or increased from week 16 to 52. For instance, in COAST-V, ASAS40 response rates for patients given ixekizumab 80 mg every 4 weeks were 48% at week 16 and 53% at week 52, and the corresponding rates in COAST-W were 25% and 34%.
Moreover, participants originally given placebo in both trials were switched to ixekizumab at week 16, and ASAS40 response rates “rapidly increased to levels consistent with those seen with continuous ixekizumab treatment,” report the investigators in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
They note that the 1-year safety profile of ixekizumab in both trials was “consistent with the known safety profile of ixekizumab.”
And the team concludes that “ixekizumab could be a longer-term treatment option for patients with [axial spondyloarthritis], regardless of prior experience with TNFi.”
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