Effectiveness and safety of filgotinib in rheumatoid arthritis patients: data from the GISEA registry

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety profile of filgotinib, a JAK1 preferential inhibitor, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients included in Italian GISEA (Group for the Study of Early Arthritis) registry.

Data from RA patients treated with filgotinib, recorded in the GISEA registry, were analysed. Disease activity scores and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) were assessed at baseline, as well as during 12-month follow-up. A difficult-to-treat (D2T) RA patient was defined according with EULAR criteria. Retention rate of filgotinib was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and factors influencing drug discontinuation were estimated by Cox regression models.

246 RA patients (female 89%, 57.6±12.2 years old) started filgotinib, mostly as second (22%) or further (43.9%) b/tsDMARDs line of treatment. At 3 and 12 months, 18.8% and 27.5% of patients achieved Clinical Diseases Activity Index based remission and 30.1% and 37.7% obtained a visual analogue scale of pain ≤20 (all p<0.01 vs. baseline). Filgotinib survival rate was 84.5% at the 6-month and 75.8% at 12-month follow-up, and was comparable either in monotherapy or combination therapy, and irrespective of glucocorticoid intake. b/tsDMARD naive patients had the lowest hazard ratio (HR) of filgotinib discontinuation (HR 0.29, 95%CI 0.14-0.64), while D2T-RA the highest (HR 1.82, 95%CI 1.01-3.3). Eight patients (3.3%) discontinued filgotinib due to adverse events.

In an Italian real-life setting, filgotinib is confirmed to be safe and with a good effectiveness profile both in monotherapy and without glucocorticoids.