Tofacitinib

Despite some safety concerns, Janus kinase, or JAK, inhibitors, are carving out a place as important treatment options for a number of autoimmune diseases, including psoriatic arthritis.

Tofacitinib for psoriatic arthritis is efficacious in most patient-reported and clinical endpoints over time, and shows shorter initial and meaningful response times versus switching from placebo to the drug at month 3, noted researchers.

Researchers observed high levels of tofacitinib persistence for the long-term treatment of patients with ulcerative colitis, according to a study published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who received tofacitinib demonstrated a greater risk for major adverse cardiovascular events and cancer than those treated with TNF inhibitors, according to data in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The WHO has issued a “strong recommendation” for baricitinib, in combination with corticosteroids, in the treatment of patients with severe or critical COVID-19.

Compared with placebo, most biologic and small molecule therapies correlated with superiority for the induction of remission in moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, according to research published in Gut.

The FDA has approved Xeljanz for the treatment of adults with active ankylosing spondylitis who have had an inadequate response, or intolerance to, TNF inhibitors, according to a Pfizer press release.

In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, risk of venous thromboembolism was higher in those taking 10 mg of tofacitinib twice a day compared to 5 mg or TNF inhibitors, according to findings from the ORAL Surveillance study.

In the real-world setting, tofacitinib was not found to significantly increase risk of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with TNF inhibitors, according to an abstract presented at ACR Convergence 2021.

Tofacitinib is associated with a numerically higher incidence of major adverse cardiac events, versus TNF inhibitors, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis at an increased cardiac risk, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2021.