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03-06-2020 | Ankylosing spondylitis | News

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MEASURE 2: Sustained benefits of secukinumab in ankylosing spondylitis

Author: Claire Barnard

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medwireNews: Follow-up results from the MEASURE 2 trial indicate that patients with ankylosing spondylitis treated with the interleukin (IL)-17A inhibitor secukinumab experience sustained clinical benefits for up to 5 years.

These findings “add to the growing body of evidence supporting the use of IL-17 inhibition for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis, as recognized in the recent guidelines from ASAS and EULAR,” write the investigators in The Lancet Rheumatology.

At the 5-year follow-up, 67% of 54 patients treated with secukinumab at the approved dose of 150 mg every 4 weeks throughout MEASURE 2 achieved an ASAS20 response rate, while 50% achieved an ASAS40 response. The corresponding response rates were 70% and 54% when including 29  patients initially assigned to placebo who switched to secukinumab 150 mg at week 16.

Helena Marzo-Ortega (University of Leeds, UK) and team explain that the IL-17A inhibitor was administered subcutaneously, following a subcutaneous loading dose of 150 mg/week at baseline and weeks 1–4.

In the safety analysis, which also included patients treated with the lower secukinumab dose of 75 mg every 4 weeks and those who switched from placebo to secukinumab at week 16, “[n]o new safety signals were identified” during a total secukinumab exposure of 842.9 patient–years, say the study authors. In all, 25% of 211 participants experienced nonfatal serious adverse events (AEs), and 10% experienced AEs leading to treatment discontinuation. The most commonly reported AEs were nasopharyngitis and upper respiratory tract infection.

medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2020 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature Group

Lancet Rheumatol 2020; 2: e339–346

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