Takeda’s Entyvio outperforms AbbVie’s Humira in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis
pharmafile | September 27, 2019 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development | AbbVie, Entyvio, Humira, Takeda, pharma, ulcerative colitis
Takeda has released strong new data for Entyvio (vedolizumab), showing that the gut-selective biologic outperformed AbbVie’s blockbuster anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) biologic Humira (adalimumab) in the treatment of moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).
Data showed that 34.2% of anti-TNFα-naïve patients treated with Entyvio saw clinical remission after 52 weeks of treatment compared to 24.3% with Humira, meeting the trial’s primary endpoint, while these rates stood at 20.3% in anti-TNFα-experienced patients compared to 16%.
Furthermore, 26.6% of Entyvio patients reached clinical remission after just 14 weeks, while only 21.2% of Humira patients could say the same.
The data also showed that a greater proportion of Entyvio patient saw an improvement in their quality of life, with 52% reporting a ≥16-point improvement in total Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) scores from baseline after 52 weeks, compared to 42.2% with Humira.
“In a chronic, debilitating condition like ulcerative colitis, it is essential that patients gain relief from the many different aspects of the disease,” remarked Dr Bruce E Sands, primary investigator of the VARSITY study and Chief of the Dr Henry D Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology at The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine in New York. “The VARSITY results provide physicians with valuable insights to support their treatment decisions when initiating biologic therapy in patients with ulcerative colitis.”
Dr Jeff Bornstein, Executive Medical Director at Takeda, added: “The VARSITY study, a first-of-its-kind comparison of two biologics in ulcerative colitis, shows the benefits vedolizumab treatment provides to patients versus adalimumab across efficacy outcomes, in addition to improvements in overall quality of life. These data further support the use of vedolizumab as a first-line biologic therapy in ulcerative colitis.”
Matt Fellows
Related Content
Pharma sees climate disruption as growing supply-chain risk
Nine in ten pharmaceutical companies across the UK and G7 countries expect climate-related disruption to …
AI in pharma: From lab development to patient impact
In the decade to 2025, AI use in vaccine development has increased markedly but is …
MRM Health’s ulcerative colitis treatment receives FDA Investigational New Drug clearance
Microbial Resource Management (MRM) Health has announced that its lead programme, MH002, has received Investigational …
