Background/Purpose:  Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases of childhood. Due to their long-term safety and efficacy, biologic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) are commonly necessary for control of polyarticular JIA (pJIA) patients (pts). The objective of this study is to evaluate 6-year (y) safety and 2 y effectiveness profile of Adalimumab with or without methotrexate (ADA±MTX) when used in current clinical practice for the treatment of moderately to severely active pJIA.

Methods:  This is a 6 y interim analysis of an ongoing, multicenter, non-interventional, observational registry of pts with moderately to severely active pJIA with up to10 y safety follow-up. Included pts are treated with either ADA±MTX or MTX alone as part of their routine clinical care enrolled in the US, EU, and Australia. MedDRA observational adverse events (AEs) were recorded from the first day in the registry through last contact, irrespective of the duration of registry treatment. Effectiveness was assessed by 27-joint juvenile arthritis disease activity score (JADAS27), based on CRP.

Results:  As of January 2014, enrollment was complete. As of June 1, 2015 cut-off date, 846 pts (543 in ADA±MTX and 303 in MTX groups) were treated in the registry. There were 39 pts who rolled over from the MTX to the ADA±MTX arm. At registry entry mean pJIA disease duration was 1.4 y and 3.7 y for MTX and ADA±MTX arms, respectively. At baseline (BL), mean AJC71 was 5.8 and 5.3 for MTX and ADA±MTX arms, respectively, and Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (CHAQ-DI) was 0.6 for both arms. At data cutoff, the mean duration of study exposure was 1.81 y and 2.15 y for MTX and ADA±MTX arms, respectively. Overall, 206 pts (68%) in the MTX and 216 pts (39.8%) in the ADA±MTX arms discontinued registry drug through 6 y. The main reasons for registry drug discontinuation for the MTX arm: pts required additional therapy (32.3%), other (11.9%), lack of efficacy (10.9%), AEs (8.3%), or pts achieved JIA remission (7.6%), and for ADA±MTX arm: lack of efficacy (16%), lost to follow-up (7.2%), other (5.9%), and AEs (5.3%). Frequencies and rates of treatment-emergent AEs were similar to those reported for observational AEs (Table). There were no reports of deaths, malignancies, opportunistic infections, active TB, oral candidiasis, or CHF. Mean JADAS27(CRP) improved from 12.2 at BL to 9.7, 5.2, 4.4, 3.5, 2.2 at months 1, 6, and 12, 18, 24 for pts in the MTX and from 11.8 at BL to 7.0, 4.-2, 4.2, 3.6, 3.9 in the ADA±MTX arms, respectively (observed data).

Conclusion:  Overall, ADA±MTX was well-tolerated in these pts with pJIA with no new safety signals. Discontinuations from the registry drug were relatively high through 6 y, but greater in the MTX only arm.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/safety-and-effectiveness-of-adalimumab%c2%b1methotrexate-for-the-treatment-of-polyarticular-juvenile-idiopathic-arthritis/