EULAR: Sustained outcomes with UCB’s Cimzia in spondyloarthritis

Belgium’s leading drugmaker UCB (Euronext: UCB) today presented new long-term data on Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) in the treatment of spondyloarthritis including patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2014 Annual Congress in Paris, France.

“The new long-term data from the RAPID-PsA and -axSpA studies presented at EULAR 2014 showed that the 24-week outcomes observed in Cimzia-treated PsA and axSpA patients were sustained over two years,” said Philip Mease, director rheumatology research, at the Swedish Medical Center and Clinical Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, USA, adding: “Post-hoc analyses suggested that disease activity and clinical response during the first 12 weeks of treatment with Cimzia may predict 48-week outcomes. This approach may enable physicians to determine early on when to change treatment in patients not responding to Cimzia.”

Previous reports from the RAPID-PsA and -axSpA studies demonstrated that the efficacy and safety of Cimzia to 24 weeks were sustained to 48 weeks in patients with PsA and patients with axSpA, including those with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA). The new data presented at EULAR, based on an additional 48 weeks of open-label data, showed that improvements in clinical efficacy and patient-reported outcomes observed over 24 weeks were sustained throughout the dose-blind and open-label periods to week 96, with no new safety signals reported. In patients with PsA, clinical efficacy was maintained in patients with or without prior anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) exposure. In patients with axSpA, similar sustained improvements were observed in both AS and nr-axSpA sub-populations.