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Objective To evaluate fenebrutinib, an oral and highly selective noncovalent inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods Patients with RA and an inadequate response to methotrexate (MTX) (cohort 1; n = 480) were randomized to receive fenebrutinib (50 mg once daily, 150 mg once daily, or 200 mg twice daily), adalimumab (40 mg every other week), or placebo. Patients with RA and an inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (cohort 2; n = 98) received fenebrutinib (200 mg twice daily) or placebo. Both cohorts continued MTX therapy. Results In cohort 1, the percentages of patients in whom American College of Rheumatology 50% improvement criteria (ACR50) was achieved at week 12 were similar in the fenebrutinib 50 mg once daily and placebo groups, and were higher in the fenebrutinib 150 mg once daily group (28%) and 200 mg twice daily group (35%) than in the placebo group (15%) (P = 0.016 and P = 0.0003, respectively). Fenebrutinib 200 mg twice daily and adalimumab (36%) were comparable (P = 0.81). In cohort 2, ACR50 was achieved in more patients receiving fenebrutinib 200 mg twice daily (25%) than placebo (12%) (P = 0.072). The most common adverse events in the fenebrutinib groups included nausea, headache, anemia, and upper respiratory tract infections. Fenebrutinib had significant effects on myeloid and B cell biomarkers (CCL4 and rheumatoid factor). Fenebrutinib and adalimumab caused overlapping as well as distinct changes in B cell and myeloid biomarkers. Conclusion Fenebrutinib demonstrates efficacy comparable to adalimumab in patients with an inadequate response to MTX, and safety consistent with existing immunomodulatory therapies for RA. These data support targeting both B and myeloid cells via this novel mechanism for potential efficacy in the treatment of RA.

Background Filgotinib (FIL) is an orally administered, selective janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitor in development for psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Efficacy and safety of FIL in patients with active PsA were evaluated in a 16-week phase 2 study (EQUATOR, NCT03101670). After 16 weeks, patients could roll-over to an Open Label Extension (OLE) Study (EQUATOR2, NCT03320876) for the purpose of evaluating long-term safety and efficacy. The aim of this analysis was to assess safety and efficacy through 52 weeks of exposure to filgotinib. Methods Patients who completed the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study were eligible for participation in the OLE, during which all patients received once daily (qd) open-label FIL 200mg. In this interim analysis of OLE, for the safety analysis, all data were included from the screening in the core study up to the data cut of 18 April 2019 in the OLE. For the efficacy analysis, all data until OLE Week 52 visit for each patient were included (observed case analysis). Results Of the 131 patients randomised and dosed in EQUATOR, 124 (95%) completed the study and 122 (93%) enrolled in EQUATOR2; 50% were female and mean age was 50. At this interim analysis, 106/122 (87%) remained in the OLE (premature discontinuations during OLE due to: 4 for safety, 11 withdrew consent, and 1 for other reasons). Cumulative patient years of exposure (PYE) on FIL were 160, median time on FIL was 66 weeks. Key safety data are summarised in Table 1. Key ≥Grade 2 treatment-emergent laboratory abnormalities seen with FIL arm (N = 128) compared with PBO (N = 66) were lymphocyte decrease 11.1% vs 4.5%, neutrophil decrease 5.5% vs 0%, ALT increase 1.6% vs 1.5% and creatinine increase 0.8% vs 0%, respectively. At week 52, 34% of the patients fulfilled criteria for minimal disease activity and 81%, 55%, and 33% of patients, respectively, achieved ACR20/50/70 responses. Conclusion FIL 200mg qd was generally well tolerated and the safety profile in PsA was comparable to that observed in the FIL rheumatoid arthritis studies. The data from this interim analysis suggest that further improvement of the patient condition can be expected beyond 16 weeks of treatment. Disclosures L. Coates: Other; Received support from Abbvie, Amgen, Celgene, Galapagos, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Prothena, Sun pharma, and UCB. P. Mease: Other; Received support from Abbvie, Amgen, BMS, Celgene, Galapagos, Genentech, Gilead, Janssen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, SUN, and UCB. D. Gladman: Other; Received support from Abbvie, Amgen, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Gilead, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB, BMS, and Galapagos. F. Van den Bosch: Other; Received support from Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Galapagos, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. A. Rychlewska-Hanczewska: Other; Received support from Galapagos and Gilead Sciences. C. Tasset: Corporate appointments; Employee of Galapagos NV. L. Meuleners: Corporate appointments; Employee of Galapagos NV. M. Trivedi: Corporate appointments; Employee of Gilead Sciences, Inc. Shareholder/stock ownership; Shareholder of Gilead Sciences, Inc. Y. Guo: Corporate appointments; Employee of Gilead Sciences, Inc... Shareholder/stock ownership; Shareholder of Gilead Sciences, Inc. R. Besuyen: Other; Employee of Galapagos NV. P. Helliwell: Other; Received support from Abbvie, Amgen, Celgene, Galapagos, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB.

Background Filgotinib (FIL) is an oral, selective Janus kinase 1 inhibitor in development for the treatment of several inflammatory diseases. In the phase 2 EQUATOR trial (NCT03101670), FIL was efficacious vs placebo (PBO) in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and was well tolerated [1]. Objectives To evaluate the onset and maintenance of response to FIL vs PBO in EQUATOR by evaluating patient–level response over time. Methods EQUATOR was a 16-week, multicenter, double-blind study in which patients with active PsA were randomized 1:1 to FIL 200 mg or PBO once daily [1]. Disease activity was assessed at screening, day 1 and weeks 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16, and the primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving 20% American College of Rheumatology (ACR20) response. The onset of response was assessed by calculating the median time to ACR20 response using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared between FIL and PBO using the log-rank test. Maintenance of response was assessed by analysing ACR20 response patterns over time in the FIL and PBO groups. Results Of 131 patients randomized (FIL: n=65; PBO: n=66), 124 (95%) completed the study. Demographics and baseline disease characteristics were similar between groups. The onset of response to FIL was early, with a median (95% confidence interval) time to first ACR20 response of 4.07 weeks (2.29, 4.14) in the FIL group compared with 12.29 weeks (12, not reached) in the PBO group (p Conclusion In general, patients treated with FIL achieved an ACR20 response earlier than those on PBO and these responses appeared to be more stable. In the PBO group, there were more occurrences of the response being lost over time and fewer cases of regaining a lost response. Reference [1] Mease P, et al. Lancet2018;392:2367–77. Acknowledgement This study was funded by Galapagos NV (Mechelen, Belgium). Medical writing support was provided by Alice Wareham PhD, CMPP (Aspire Scientific Ltd, Bollington, UK) and funded by Galapagos NV. Disclosure of Interests Philip J Mease Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Celgene, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, SUN and UCB, Consultant for: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Galapagos, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, SUN and UCB, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Celgene, Genentech, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB, Dafna D Gladman Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Amgen, Celgene, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB, Consultant for: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Celgene, Galapagos, Gilead, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB, Filip van den Bosch Consultant for: AbbVie, BMS, Galapagos, Janssen, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, BMS, Janssen, Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and UCB., Mykola Stanislavchuk Grant/research support from: AstraZeneca, Celltrion, Galapagos, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Human Genome, Lilly, MedImmune, Pfizer, Roche and UCB, Anna Rychlewska-Hanczewska Grant/research support from: Galapagos and Gilead Sciences, Inc., Chantal Tasset Shareholder of: Warrants from Galapagos, Employee of: Galapagos, Luc Meuleners Shareholder of: Warrants from Galapagos, Employee of: Galapagos, Robin Besuyen Shareholder of: Warrants from Galapagos, Employee of: Galapagos, Jingjing Gao Shareholder of: AbbVie and Gilead Sciences, Inc., Employee of: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Mona Trivedi Shareholder of: Amgen and Gilead Sciences, Inc., Employee of: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Laura C Coates Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Celgene, Lilly, Novartis and Pfizer, Consultant for: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Celgene, Galapagos, Gilead Sciences Inc., Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Prothena Corp and UCB, Philip Helliwell Grant/research support from: Paid to charity: from AbbVie, Janssen and Novartis, Consultant for: Paid to charity: from AbbVie, Amgen, Pfizer, and UCB and Celgene. Paid to self: from Celgene and Galapagos

The Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of psoriatic arthritis. We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of filgotinib, a selective JAK1 inhibitor, for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis.The EQUATOR trial was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial that enrolled adults from 25 sites in seven countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine). Patients (aged ≥18 years) had active moderate-to-severe psoriatic arthritis (defined as at least five swollen joints and at least five tender joints) fulfilling Classification for psoriatic arthritis (CASPAR) criteria, active or a documented history of plaque psoriasis, and an insufficient response or intolerance to at least one conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (csDMARD). Patients continued to take csDMARDs during the study if they had received this treatment for at least 12 weeks before screening and were on a stable dose for at least 4 weeks before baseline. Using an interactive web-based system, we randomly allocated patients (1:1) to filgotinib 200 mg or placebo orally once daily for 16 weeks (stratified by current use of csDMARDs and previous use of anti-tumour necrosis factor). Patients, study team, and sponsor were masked to treatment assignment. The primary endpoint was proportion of patients achieving 20% improvement in American College of Rheumatology response criteria (ACR20) at week 16 in the full analysis set (patients who received at least one dose of study drug), which was compared between groups with the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test and non-responder imputation method. This trial is registered with ClincalTrials.gov, number NCT03101670.Between March 9, and Sept 27, 2017, 191 patients were screened and 131 were randomly allocated to treatment (65 to filgotinib and 66 to placebo). 60 (92%) patients in the filgotinib group and 64 (97%) patients in the placebo group completed the study; five patients (8%) in the filgotinib group and two patients (3%) in the placebo group discontinued treatment. 52 (80%) of 65 patients in the filgotinib group and 22 (33%) of 66 in the placebo group achieved ACR20 at week 16 (treatment difference 47% [95% CI 30·2-59·6], p0·0001). 37 (57%) patients who received filgotinib and 39 (59%) patients who received placebo had at least one treatment-emergent adverse event. Six participants had an event that was grade 3 or worse. The most common events were nasopharyngitis and headache, occurring at similar proportions in each group. One serious treatment-emergent adverse event was reported in each group (pneumonia and hip fracture after a fall), one of which (pneumonia) was fatal in the filgotinib group.Filgotinib is efficacious for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis, and no new safety signals were identified.Galapagos and Gilead Sciences.