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

Authors: Ruperto N, Brunner H, Tzaribachev N, Louw I, Calvo I, Horneff G, Henrickson M, Rama ME, Fischbach M, Miraval T, Ally MM, Li X, Wong R, Nys M, Murthy B, Lin KJ, Passarell JA, Martini A, Lovell DJ
Conference: EULAR
Keywords: bDMARDs, EULAR, intravenous, IV, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), Kaplan-Meier, pediatrics, pJIA, SC, subcutaneous
Division: Cognigen

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