The Anti-IL17A Monoclonal Antibody Secukinumab in the Treatment of Active Ankylosing Spondylitis

At the ACR Late-breaking Poster Session Dominique Baeten and colleagues reported about the Anti-IL17A Monoclonal Antibody Secukinumab (AIN457, showed sood safety and efficacy in the treatment of active ankylosing spondylitis. 30 patients fulfilling the 1984 modified New York criteria for active AS were enrolled into this double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter proof-of-concept study. Secukinumab met the primary endpoint of this study with reaching higher ASAS20 responses than placebo at week 6. No early safety signal has been noticed.

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The Anti-IL17A Monoclonal Antibody Secukinumab (AIN457) Showed Good Safety and Efficacy in the Treatment of Active Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Dominique Baeten1,Joachim Sieper2,Paul Emery3,Jürgen Braun4,Désirée v.d. Heijde5,Iain McInnes6,Jacob M. van Laar7,Robert Landewé8,Paul Wordsworth9,Jürgen Wollenhaupt10,Herbert Kellner11,Jacky Paramarta1,Arthur P Bertolino12,Andrew M Wright13,Wolfgang Hueber12. 1Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Academic Medical Center/University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,2Medicine/Rheumatology Department, Charite Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin,Germany,3Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom,4Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet, Herne, Germany,5Rheumatology Department, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands,6Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom,7Musculoskeletal Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom,8Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine/Rheumatology, Maastricht, The Netherlands,9Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom,10Division of Rheumatology, Eilbeck Hospital, Hamburg, Germany,11Division of Rheumatology, Centre for Inflammatory Joint Diseases, Munich, Germany,12Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland,13Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland.
Conclusion: The primary endpoint of this study was met, as secukinumab induced significantly higher ASAS20 responses than placebo at week 6. No early safety signal was noted in this study population. Interim data presented here suggest that secukinumab may be useful for the treatment of moderate to severe active ankylosing spondylitis and thereby warrant larger long-term studies on safety and efficacy.