Intravenous golimumab (Simponi Aria)
Dr. Kavanaugh was first author of the GO-VIBRANT study, a phase 3, double-blind clinical trial in which 480 biologic-naive psoriatic arthritis patients were randomized to a 30-minute infusion of IV golimumab at 2 mg/kg or placebo at weeks 0, 4, 12, and 20.
The primary endpoint, an ACR20 response at week 14, was achieved in 75.1% of patients on the tumor necrosis factor inhibitor versus 21.8% on placebo. An ACR50 response occurred in 43.6% of patients on IV golimumab, compared with 6.3% on placebo, and a Psoriasis and Area Severity Index 75 skin response was achieved in 59.2% on IV golimumab and 13.6% of controls. At week 24, the IV golimumab group demonstrated significantly less radiographic progression as measured by the total modified Sharp/van der Heijde score. The drug was well tolerated, with no opportunistic infections or tuberculosis, and the infusion reaction rate was below 2% (Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017 Nov;69[11]:2151-61).
Secukinumab
In a recent update of the 606-patient FUTURE 1 trial, secukinumab resulted in clinically meaningful improvement in key patient-reported outcomes at week 24, including global assessment of disease activity, which decreased by a mean of 20.6 and 20 points in patients on 150 and 75 mg, respectively, every 4 weeks, compared with a 7.4-point drop in placebo-treated controls.
Psoriatic arthritis quality of life scores improved by 3.5 and 3.2 points in the two secukinumab arms, compared with 0.4 points in controls. Dermatology Life Quality Index scores improved by 8.8 and 7.9 points, versus 0.7 in controls. Patients on the interleukin-17A inhibitor also showed significantly greater improvement in self-assessments measuring pain and fatigue (Ann Rheum Dis. 2017 Jan;76[1]:203-7).