Absence of Association Between Drug Exposure and Infection in Patients With Polyarticular-Course Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Inadequate Response to Biologic or Non-Biologic DMARDs Treated With SC and IV Abatacept

Conference: EULAR

Introduction

  • Compared with adults, children are more susceptible to infections.
  • In paediatric patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), infections are the most commonly reported AEs linked to biologic (b)DMARDs.1
  • bDMARDs are an effective treatment option for JIA.1
  • Compared with adult patients with RA, paediatric patients with polyarticular-course JIA (pJIA) receiving abatacept had a numerically higher rate of infections.2
  • Blood concentrations achieved with bDMARDs may vary greatly between individualpatients.
  • It is not known whether the infection risk is linked to abatacept exposure in patients with pJIA following the approved IV or SC dosing regimen.

Acknowledgements
This study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Professional medical writing and editorial assistance was provided by Bu Reinen, PhD, at Caudex and was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The Annual European Congress of Rheumatology, June 13-16, 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands

By Julie A Passarell