[Inflammatory bowel diseases - therapy update 2022]

Growing insights into the underlying immunopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) have led to the advent of targeted therapies, which selectively target pivotal mediators of the inflammatory process. This has enabled us to define and achieve novel therapeutic outcomes to prevent disease-associated complications and halt the progressive course of disease. In addition to already available treatment options, the selective Janus kinase type 1 inhibitor filgotinib and the selective sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator Ozanimod have recently been approved for the treatment of ulcerative colitis patients. Furthermore, positive phase 2/3 induction and maintenance trial results have been reported for representatives of the class of IL-23p19 inhibitors, which are expected to further increase our therapeutic possibilities. All these agents can be applied as first-line or also subsequent treatment options and recent head-to-head trials have helped us to position these substances in our therapeutic algorithm. Nevertheless, there is still the currently unmet clinical need do establish predictive markers of response to identify the subgroup of IBD patients, that have a heightened probability of response to each therapy. In the following, we will give an overview of the recently approved or in late-stage clinical development tested substances and discuss their positioning in our therapeutic armamentarium.