Findings from a rheumatoid arthritis registry study suggest that the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib may have comparable real-world effectiveness to TNF inhibitors.

However, implementation of T2T strategies differs in real-world clinical practice, contributing to a significant proportion of patients with RA failing to achieve remission or low disease activity.

This study provided real-world data for guiding dose reduction and withdrawal of TNFi in the treatment of AS.

The STAR-RA study drew on three US databases, and included a total of 102,263 RA patients treated in routine care who initiated tofacitinib (n=12,852) or a TNF inhibitor between 2012 and 2020.

However, there is limited research on prescribing patterns among physicians who initiate canakinumab in real-world settings.

“Treatment decisions can be challenging in PsA because of the variety of available drugs, and although efficacy and safety have been demonstrated in [randomized clinical trials], real-world data comparing biologics are limited,” write Josef Smolen (Medical University of Vienna, Austria) and co-authors in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases .

They reviewed data for 15,332 people from 13 European countries who initiated a first TNF inhibitor between 2006 and 2017.

The 623 patients who switched to GP2017 had a significant 40% lower likelihood of treatment withdrawal than the 695 patients who switched to SB5 after adjustment for factors including age, sex, previous treatment, and comorbidities.

Findings from two real-world studies presented at the EULAR 2021 Virtual Congress suggest that JAK inhibitors and biologics are similarly effective for the treatment of inflammatory arthritis.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have an inadequate response to initial methotrexate therapy achieve comparable improvements in disease activity with treatment optimization as with biologic DMARD therapy initiation, suggest data from the STRATEGE study.

Real-world data confirm the effectiveness of tocilizumab for decreasing relapse risk and allowing corticosteroid reduction in heavily treated patients with giant cell arteritis.

The risk for death was a significant 1.66 times higher among patients who did versus did not have ILD at baseline, the researchers note in Rheumatology .

Talking to medwireNews about the strengths and limitations of the research, study co-lead Athimalaipet Ramanan (University of Bristol, UK) said that while “registries are important for following long-term safety of new agents (including biologics) in children, the challenge is that when we look at this data for important aspects of disease onset, course etc, the limitations of real world [studies] need to be taken into account.”

Treatment with certolizumab pegol is beneficial for patients with axial spondyloarthritis in real-world clinical practice, suggest findings from the CIMAX study.

Less than a fifth of patients with newly diagnosed psoriatic arthritis who start treatment with methotrexate monotherapy in routine clinical practice have minimal disease activity after 1 year, researchers report.

The response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors among patients with axial spondyloarthritis is lower in the real world than in clinical trials regardless of whether individuals would have met trial eligibility criteria, study findings indicate.

Real-world data from the JAKPOT study suggest slightly higher retention with JAK inhibitors than TNF inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but not significantly so due to rates varying widely from country to country.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tofacitinib in routine clinical practice have a higher risk for serious infections, including herpes zoster, than those given other biologic agents, researchers report.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with tofacitinib in routine clinical practice have a higher risk for serious infections, including herpes zoster, than those given other biologic agents, researchers report.

Findings from an Italian real-world study provide support for the phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor apremilast as a treatment option for people with Behçet’s disease.