Background/Purpose: Filgotinib (FIL) is a potent oral selective janus kinase 1 inhibitor which is currently being investigated as an agent to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the FINCH 2 study (NCT02873936), FIL in combination with conventional synthetic (cs)DMARD therapy significantly improved the signs and symptoms of RA in patients with an inadequate response to a biologic (b)DMARD compared with placebo (PBO). Chronic inflammatory diseases such as RA substantially affects a broad range of aspects of patients’ health related quality of life, including work participation.¹ The aim of this post-hoc analysis is to evaluate the rate and magnitude of change on work productivity and activity scores from the FINCH 2 study.

Methods: Patients with active RA were randomized to receive FIL 200 mg (n = 147), FIL 100 mg (n = 153), and PBO (n = 148) for 24 weeks. The activity impairment, work productivity impairment, presenteeism, and absenteeism in the past 7 days were evaluated at baseline and at weeks 4, 12 and 52 on treatment, using the self-administered 6-item Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire: Rheumatoid Arthritis (WPAI:RA). The WPAI-RA contains the activity impairment as a single item score evaluated among all subjects, while work productivity impairment (employed patients only) is absenteeism and presenteeism. The 4 subscale scores ranged from 0%-100%, with higher scores indicating greater impairment. Percentage changes from baseline in WPAI: RA score were analyzed using mixed effect models for repeated measures (MMRM), and missing data were not imputed. All analyses were exploratory without multiplicity adjustment, nominal P values are reported.

Results: Baseline characteristics were similar across all treatment arms. Patients were (mean ± SD) 56 ± 12 years old, 80% female, and 32% employed. Statistically significantly greater improvement in WPAI scores from baseline compared to PBO was reported as early as week 4 with both doses of FIL for work productivity and activity. Similar statistically significant improvement occurred as early as week 4 for presenteeism with FIL 200mg and as early as week 12 for FIL 100mg. (Table 1). At 12 weeks, FIL 200mg resulted in 21.5-24.7%% improvement in work productivity and presenteeism compared to 4.8-5.1% in PBO. Both doses of FIL improved activity impairment score by 19.6-25.8% from baseline compared to 11.7% in PBO at week 12 and was maintained through week 24.

Conclusion: Improvement in work productivity, presenteeism and activity was greater with both doses of FIL in combination with csDMARD compared to PBO + csDMARD in RA patients who had inadequate response to bDMARDs.

Reference:

1. Kim et al. J Rheumatol. 2017;44(8):1112-1117.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/filgotinib-improved-work-productivity-and-activity-impairment-in-patients-with-rheumatoid-arthritis-and-inadequate-response-to-biologic-dmards-results-from-the-finch-2-study/