Sustained improvements for spondyloarthritis patients provided by Cimzia

New data from the RAPID-axSpS study showed that the rapid improvements in clinical outcomes observed in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) patients treated with Belgian drugmaker UCB’s (Euronext Brussels: UCB) Cimzia(certolizumab pegol) over 24 weeks, were maintained to week 48 and the OLE to week 96 in both the ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA) subpopulations.

The safety profile was in-line with previous reports from RAPID-axSpA, with no new safety signals observed with longer exposure duration. The study has been published in the on-line edition of Arthritis and Rheumatology. Cimzia is UCB’s top-selling product, generating sales of 561 million euros ($688 million) in the first nine months of 2014, a year-on-year rise of 32%,

RAPID-axSpA is the first study to investigate the efficacy of an anti-TNF in the broad axSpA population, including both AS and nr-axSpA patients. Baseline disease activity, as measured by BASDAI and ASDAS, was similar in the AS and nr-axSpA subpopulations. The similarities between these subpopulations in terms of disease characteristics and burden of disease highlight the need for more treatment options to be available across the broader axSpA population. The similarity in improvements observed across both AS and nr-axSpA patients indicates that certolizumab pegol is efficacious for the treatment of axSpA patients with objective signs of inflammation, independent of whether the patient has sufficient structural damage in the SI joints to meet the modified New York (mNY) classification criteria for AS.

Adverse events (AEs) to week 96 of the RAPID-axSpA study were predominantly mild (74.9%) to moderate (59.4%) in nature with 9.8% of AEs considered to be severe.