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Psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis are a group of diseases that cause pain and inflammation of the joints and/or spine. Safety data were combined from five studies: two in psoriatic arthritis, two in ankylosing spondylitis, and one in non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. Patients were treated with upadacitinib or adalimumab for up to 5 years. Adalimumab was only used for patients participating in one of the two psoriatic arthritis studies. Side effects from treatment were more common in patients with psoriatic arthritis than those with ankylosing spondylitis and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis; more patients with psoriatic arthritis had side effects with upadacitinib than adalimumab. A similar number of patients across treatment groups and diseases had side effects that made them stop treatment. The number of cancer cases (except cancer of the upper layer of the skin), cardiovascular issues, and blood clots were similar between the upadacitinib and adalimumab groups in psoriatic arthritis and across diseases. Serious infections, painful rashes that cause blisters (herpes zoster, also commonly referred to as shingles), low levels of white blood cells, and cancer of the upper layer of the skin were more common with upadacitinib than adalimumab in patients with psoriatic arthritis; overall, these events occurred more often with upadacitinib in patients with psoriatic arthritis than with ankylosing spondylitis and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. Our results showed that the safety of upadacitinib was generally similar across diseases, and patients could tolerate it well for up to 5 years. No new safety risks were found with upadacitinib treatment.

Introduction: Patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) have significant unmet treatment needs, despite advancements in biologic therapies. This study evaluated the impact of upadacitinib on clinically meaningful improvement in patient-reported outcomes (PROs) assessing disease activity, pain, fatigue, function, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and work productivity in patients with AS with inadequate responses or intolerance to biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARD-IR). Methods: Patients enrolled in the phase 3 SELECT-AXIS 2 AS bDMARD-IR study received blinded once-daily oral upadacitinib 15 mg or placebo for 14 weeks. The percentage of patients achieving improvements ≥ minimum clinically important differences (MCID) at week 14 were compared between treatment groups for disease activity (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, BASDAI), patient global assessment of disease activity (PtGA), total and nocturnal back pain, fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue, FACIT-F), physical function (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index, BASFI), HRQoL (Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society Health Index [ASAS HI], Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life [ASQoL], Short form-36 [SF-36] physical [PCS] and mental [MCS] component summary scores), and work productivity (Work Productivity and Activity Impairment [WPAI] Questionnaire). Mean changes from baseline through week 14 in fatigue and HRQoL were compared between treatment groups. Results: A total of 420 patients with active AS who were bDMARD-IR were included. A higher proportion of patients reported MCIDs at week 14 across all PROs with upadacitinib compared with placebo (nominal p≤ 0.05). Greater improvements in mean change from baseline through week 14 were reported with upadacitinib compared with placebo across FACIT-F, HRQoL, and WPAI, with improvements differentiated as early as week 1 for ASAS HI, ASQoL and SF-36 PCS and week 4 for SF-36 MCS. Conclusions: Upadacitinib 15 mg demonstrated rapid and clinically meaningful improvements in disease activity, pain, FACIT-F, function, HRQoL, and WPAI among bDMARD-IR patients with active AS. Trial Registry: Clinical Registration number: NCT04169373, SELECT-AXIS 2.