WIN Olokizumab

I’ve just noticed that people have been interested in my article from 2013 “Olokizumab – any new developments?” I therefore adopted the WIN (=what is new?) from the ACR meeting sessions.

To tell the story in short, let me begin a little bit earlier than at “what is new?”. As nothing on olokizumab appeared at the EULAR meeting in Madrid in June 2013, I wondered: “Nothing! / Very strange as olokizumab targets interleukin-6 (IL-6). … Postponed or abandoned?” In July 2013 there had been an announcement by UCB: “UCB out-licenses RA drug olokizumab to Russia's R-Pharm”.

In 2014 I thought that olokizumab had been abandoned as nothing had been published at the EULAR 2014 Meeting in Paris.

MC Genovese and colleagues published: “Efficacy and safety of olokizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis with an inadequate response to TNF inhibitor therapy: outcomes of a randomised Phase IIb study” in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2014).

MC Genovese and colleagues (other group of researchers) published at the ACR 2015 Meeting in San Francisco: “Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Olokizumab in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Who Have Previously Failed Anti-TNF Treatment“. The researchers looked at data from Western and Asian patients. Conclusion: “OKZ [OLOKIZUMAB] was well-tolerated, with an expected safety profile for this class of agent. Reductions in disease activity were sustained to Wk48. These results support the development of OKZ for the treatment of moderate-to-severe RA in Western and Asian pts.”

These recent studies aren’t so interesting in the results, but still there is a story being told. UCB still hasn’t given up and keeps a low fire burning. I doubt that olokizumab will be approved as a drug against rheumatoid arthritis.

References:

Olokizumab – any new developments?

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/09/olokizumab-any-new-developments.html

UCB out-licenses RA drug olokizumab to Russia's R-Pharm

http://www.pharmatimes.com/article/13-07-08/UCB_out-licenses_RA_drug_olokizumab_to_Russia_s_R-Pharm.aspx

Newer Biologics at the EULAR 2014 Meeting in Paris

http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2014/06/newer-biologics-at-eular-2014-meeting.html

Genovese MC, Fleischmann R, Furst D , Janssen N , Carter J, Dasgupta B , Bryson J , Duncan B, Zhu W, Pitzalis C, Durez P, Kretsos K. Efficacy and safety of olokizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis with an inadequate response to TNF inhibitor therapy: outcomes of a randomised Phase IIb study. Ann Rheum Dis. 2014 Sep;73(9):1607-15. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204760. Epub 2014 Mar 18. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24641941

Genovese MC, Fleischmann R, Tanaka Y, Furst DE, Yamanaka H, Joshi R, Zhu W, Shao J, Mashimo H, Takeuchi T. Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Olokizumab in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis Who Have Previously Failed Anti-TNF Treatment [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; 67 (suppl 10). http://acrabstracts.org/abstract/long-term-safety-and-efficacy-of-olokizumab-in-patients-with-moderate-to-severe-rheumatoid-arthritis-who-have-previously-failed-anti-tnf-treatment/. Accessed February 17, 2016.

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