Key clinical point: Proportion of patients with psoriatic arthritis with at least 20% improvement in American College of Rheumatology (ACR20) response was significantly higher with upadacitinib than placebo; however, adverse events were more frequent with upadacitinib.
Major finding: The percentage of patients with ACR20 response at week 12 was higher with upadacitinib 15 mg (70.6%) and 30 mg (78.5%) vs. placebo (36.2%; P less than .001). Incidence of serious infections and serious adverse events with upadacitinib 15 mg, 30 mg, and placebo were 1.2%, 2.6%, and 0.9% and 3.3%, 6.1%, and 3.1%, respectively.
Study details: Findings are from SELECT-Psa 1, a phase 3 trial involving 1,704 patients with PsA who had an inadequate response to at least 1 nonbiologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and were randomly allocated to receive either oral upadacitinib 15 or 30 mg once daily, placebo, or subcutaneous adalimumab (40 mg every other week).
Disclosures: The trial was sponsored by Abbvie. The authors reported receiving consulting fees, advisory board fees, lecture fees, travel support, grant support, and/or being an employee of and/or owning stocks in various pharmaceutical companies, including Abbvie.
Source: McInnes IB et al. N Engl J Med. 2021 Apr 1. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2022516.