Key clinical point: Upadacitinib alone or in combination with methotrexate inhibits structural joint damage progression over a year in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Major finding: The mean change in modified total Sharp score (mTSS) at 1 year for 15 mg upadacitinib and 30 mg upadacitinib vs. methotrexate was 0.03 and 0.14 vs. 1.00 ( all P < .001). In methotrexate-inadequate responders (IR), mean change in mTSS with 15 mg upadacitinib vs. placebo (both with background methotrexate) was 0.28 vs. 1.73 ( P < .001 ).
Study details: This was an analysis of 2 phase 3 trials involving patients with active RA who were either methotrexate-naive ( SELECT-EARLY) and were randomly assigned to methotrexate monotherapy, 15 mg upadacitinib, or 30 mg upadacitinib or were methotrexate-IR ( SELECT-COMPARE) and were randomly assigned to either 15 mg upadacitinib, 40 mg adalimumab, or placebo, all with background methotrexate.
Disclosures: This study was funded by AbbVie. IH Song, A Friedman, T Shaw, Y Li, S Chen, and JV Enejosa reported being full-time employees or owning stocks/stock options of AbbVie, and others reported receiving research grants and consultancy or speakers fees from various sources including AbbVie.
Source: Peterfy CG et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021;keab861 (Dec 13). Doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab861 .