Key clinical point: In patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and inadequate response to methotrexate (methotrexate-IR), olokizumab fared better than placebo and was noninferior to adalimumab in improving the American College of Rheumatology (ACR20) response by ≥ 20%.
Major finding: Olokizumab once every 2 (q2w) or 4 weeks (q4w) was superior to placebo ( P < .001 for superiority) for ACR20. However, a similar proportion of patients receiving olokizumab q2w (difference 3.4 percentage points; 97.5% CI −3.5 to 10.2) and q4w (difference 4.5 percentage points; 97.5% CI −2.2 to 11.2) vs adalimumab achieved ACR20 at week 12, with the incidence of serious adverse events being similar.
Study details: Findings are from the CREDO2 phase 3 trial, including 1648 patients with RA who were taking methotrexate-IR who were randomly assigned to receive 64 mg olokizumab (q2w/q4w), 40 mg adalimumab (q2w), or placebo (q2w) while continuing methotrexate.
Disclosures: This study was supported by R-Pharm. Three authors declared being employees of R-Pharm. Several authors served as consultants or received grants or contracts from various sources, including R-Pharm.
Source: Smolen JS et al. Olokizumab versus placebo or adalimumab in rheumatoid arthritis. N Engl J Med . 2022;387(8):715-726 (Aug 25). Doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2201302