Bimekizumab
This investigational dual IL-17A/F inhibitor demonstrated efficacy and safety for SpA in a 297-patient, phase 2b trial presented at the 2018 European Congress of Rheumatology.
“It’s effective, but it doesn’t look like it’s particularly more effective than either of the existing IL-17A inhibitors. We’ll see going forward if there truly is an advantage here to the additional inhibition of IL-17F in this population. I will say that the preclinical and laboratory data on the potential advantages of IL-17F inhibition are mostly in the psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis space. It’s not clear in ankylosing spondyloarthritis specifically whether we should expect to see a difference,” Dr. Ruderman said.
Ustekinumab
The IL-12/23 inhibitor proved no better than placebo in patients with SpA in three separate phase 3, randomized trials recently published as a single summary article (Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019 Feb;71[2]:258-70).
“Ustekinumab was effective in an earlier open study, so I think everybody was surprised by this,” Dr. Kavanaugh said.
He reported serving as a consultant to and/or receiving research funding from a dozen pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Ruderman reported financial relationships with eight companies.