AbbVie today announced that the European Commission (EC) granted marketing authorization to RINVOQ® for the treatment of giant cell arteritis (GCA) in adult patients. RINVOQ is the first and only oral JAK inhibitor approved in the EU, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, for the treatment of adult patients with GCA.

"GCA is a challenging and often debilitating condition. Patients may endure headaches, jaw pain and muscle aches, with many fearing sudden and permanent vision loss,"3 said Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Schmidt, M.D., MACR, Waldfriede Hospital, Department of Rheumatology, Berlin, Germany, and SELECT-GCA trial investigator. "Results from the SELECT-GCA trial show that patients can achieve sustained remission and reduce their cumulative steroid exposure with RINVOQ, addressing important patient goals in the treatment of GCA."

GCA is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the temporal and other cranial arteries, the aorta, and other large and medium arteries. GCA generally impacts patients older than 50 years, most commonly between the ages of 70 and 80 years.

"The EC approval of RINVOQ in GCA provides patients and physicians with a new treatment option and the first oral advanced therapy for adults living with GCA – a particularly vulnerable population due to older age and frequent comorbidities, said Roopal Thakkar, M.D., executive vice president, research & development, chief scientific officer, AbbVie. "This exciting milestone demonstrates our commitment to ongoing research and expanding indications in areas of high unmet need to help patients achieve better outcomes, including sustained disease remission."

The EC approval is supported by data from the Phase 3 SELECT-GCA trial, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.1 In this trial, primary and key secondary endpoints were achieved with RINVOQ 15 mg and a 26-week steroid taper regimen compared to placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen.

Primary endpoint results from the Phase 3 SELECT-GCA trial demonstrated:

Sustained remission: 46.4% of patients receiving RINVOQ 15 mg in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen achieved sustained remission at week 52, compared with 29.0% of patients receiving placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen (p=0.002).

Key secondary endpoints included:

• Reduction in disease flares: 34.3% of patients receiving RINVOQ 15 mg in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen experienced at least one disease flare through week 52 versus 55.6% of patients receiving placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen (p=0.001).
• Lower cumulative steroid exposure: Through 52 weeks, cumulative steroid exposure was significantly lower for patients receiving RINVOQ 15 mg in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen than for patients receiving placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen (median exposure of 1615 mg versus 2882 mg, respectively; p<0.001).
• Sustained complete remission: 37.1% of patients receiving RINVOQ 15 mg in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen achieved sustained complete remission through week 52, compared with 16.1% of patients receiving placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen (p<0.001).

During the 52-week, placebo-controlled period, the safety profile of RINVOQ was generally consistent with that observed in other approved indications.2 Similar rates of serious adverse events were observed in patients receiving RINVOQ 15 mg and in those receiving placebo.1 Serious infections occurred in 5.7% of the RINVOQ 15 mg group and 10.7% of the placebo group. The proportions of patients with events of interest were balanced across treatment groups for incidence of malignancy (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer; 1.9% in the RINVOQ 15 mg group vs 1.8% in the placebo group) and venous thromboembolism (3.3% in the RINVOQ 15 mg group vs 3.6% in the placebo group).1 There were no adjudicated major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) in the RINVOQ 15 mg group, compared with two events in the placebo group.1 Four treatment-emergent deaths were reported, two in the placebo group and two in the RINVOQ 15 mg group. Of the two treatment-emergent deaths in the RINVOQ 15 mg group, one was attributed to COVID-19 and the other was adjudicated as an unexplained cause.

RINVOQ is approved in the EU for the treatment of adults with radiographic axial spondylarthritis, nonradiographic axial spondylarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, adults and adolescents with atopic dermatitis, and now adults with GCA.

Sustained remission is defined as having an absence of GCA signs and symptoms from week 12 through week 52 and adherence to the protocol-defined steroid taper over the course of the study term.
Sustained complete remission is defined as having an absence of GCA signs and symptoms from week 12 through week 52, adherence to the protocol-defined steroid taper, and normalization of both erythrocyte sedimentation rate and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein from week 12 through week 52.

 

Source: prnewswire.com

Report Abuse