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Objective: To evaluate safety and effectiveness of adalimumab (ADA) in polyarticular-course juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in the STRIVE registry., Methods: STRIVE enrolled patients with polyarticular-course JIA into 2 arms based on treatment with methotrexate (MTX) alone or ADA with/without MTX (ADA ± MTX). Adverse events (AEs) per 100 patient-years of observation time were analyzed by registry arm. Patients who entered the registry within 4 weeks of starting MTX or ADA ± MTX, defined as new users, were evaluated for change in disease activity assessed by the 27-joint Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score with the C-reactive protein level (JADAS-27 CRP )., Results: At the 7-year cutoff date (June 1, 2016), data from 838 patients were available (MTX arm n = 301, ADA ± MTX arm n = 537). The most common AEs were nausea (10.3%), sinusitis (4.7%), and vomiting (4.3%) in the MTX arm and arthritis (3.9%), upper respiratory tract infection (3.5%), sinusitis, tonsillitis, and injection site pain (3.0% each) in the ADA ± MTX arm. Rates of serious infection were 1.5 events/100 patient-years in the MTX arm and 2.0 events/100 patient-years in the ADA ± MTX arm. AE and serious AE rates were similar in patients receiving ADA with versus without MTX. No deaths or malignancies were reported. New users in the ADA ± MTX arm showed a trend toward lower mean JADAS-27 CRP compared with new users in the MTX arm in the first year of STRIVE., Conclusion: The STRIVE registry 7-year interim results support the idea that ADA ± MTX is well tolerated by most children. Registry median ADA exposure was 2.47 (interquartile range 1.0-3.6) years, with 42% of patients continuing ADA at the 7-year cutoff date., (© 2019 AbbVie Inc. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Adalimumab (ADA) has become a valuable treatment option for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The importance of combination with methotrexate (MTX) is unclear., Method: Data from the German Biologics in Paediatric Rheumatology (BIKER) registry are reported. Response to treatment was analysed using JIA American College of Rheumatology (ACR) scores, 10-joint Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (JADAS10), and improvement of functional status and ACR inactive disease criteria. Compa-risons between rates of adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) provided data for the safety assessment., Results: Overall, 584 patients with non-systemic JIA started ADA therapy, 61% of whom received concomitant MTX treatment at baseline. The latter patients were younger (p < 0.001), with shorter disease duration (p = 0.001), more frequently had antinuclear antibodies (p = 0.04), and had higher baseline JADAS10 scores (p = 0.03). In patients with ADA monotherapy, enthesitis-related arthritis (p = 0.004) and presence of human leucocyte antigen-B27 (p = 0.008) were documented more often. Mean treatment duration in both cohorts was 15 months. Comparable last follow-up rates for JIA ACR 30/50/70/90% response, JADAS minimal disease activity, JADAS remission, and ACR inactive disease were, respectively, 75/72/64/49%, 66%, 46%, and 58% for ADA monotherapy, and 77/72/61/45%, 64%, 48%, and 55%, for ADA + MTX. During 1082 patient-years (PY) of ADA exposure, 725 AEs (67/100 PY), including 57 SAEs (5.3/100 PY), were reported. Serious infections were reported in 10 patients (0.9/100 PY) and 11 (1.0/100 PY) had varicella infections/zoster reactivation. Rates of AEs, SAEs, infectious events, and serious infections did not differ between the cohorts. Elevated transaminases (p = 0.005) and gastrointestinal events (p < 0.0001) were reported more often in the combination cohort. Two pregnancies and no deaths were reported., Conclusion: ADA demonstrated an acceptable risk profile and high percentages of patients in both cohorts showed sufficient treatment response. No differences in treatment response or adherence to treatment were found.

Objective: To evaluate the safety of adalimumab in pediatric patients who participated in clinical trials of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis and pediatric enthesitis-related arthritis), psoriasis, and Crohn's disease., Study Design: This analysis included data from 7 global, randomized, and open-label AbbVie-sponsored clinical trials of adalimumab and their open-label extensions conducted between September 2002 and December 31, 2015 (cutoff date for ongoing studies). Patients who received ≥1 dose of adalimumab subcutaneously were included. Adverse events that occurred after the first dose of adalimumab and up to 70 days (5 half-lives) after the last dose were reported and events per 100 patient-years were calculated., Results: The analysis included 577 pediatric patients, representing 1440.7 patient-years of adalimumab exposure. Across indications, the most commonly reported adverse events (events/100 patient-years) were upper respiratory tract infections (24.3), nasopharyngitis (17.3), and headache (19.9). Serious infections (4.0 events/100 patient-years) were the most frequent serious adverse events across indications; the most commonly reported was pneumonia (0.6 events/100 patient-years). Serious infection rates were 2.7, 0.8, and 6.6 events/100 patient-years in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease, respectively. No events of malignancies were reported. One death (accidental fall) occurred in a patient with psoriasis., Conclusions: The safety profile of adalimumab in pediatric patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, enthesitis-related arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease was generally similar across indications; no new safety signals were identified in the treatment of pediatric patients with adalimumab., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00048542, NCT00775437, NCT00690573, NCT01166282, NCT01251614, NCT00409682, and NCT00686374., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The TNF inhibitors etanercept (ETA) and adalimumab (ADA) are approved for treating patients older than 2 years with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Because long-term experience of treating children younger than 4 years is limited, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of ETA or ADA in patients aged 2-4 years. This prospective, long-term, observational registry study documented baseline demographics, clinical characteristics, disease activity parameters, and safety of patients treated with ETA or ADA. Efficacy was determined using the JADAS-10, the JADAS criteria for minimal disease activity (MDA) and remission, and the PedACR response criteria after 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Between January 2001 and March 2015, 85 patients with polyarticular JIA aged 2-4 years started anti-TNF-α treatment. Seventy-four (54 girls) patients were treated with ETA and 11 (7 girls) with ADA. After 6/12/24 months of treatment, JADAS-MDA was reached by 55/58/58 % of ETA patients and 50/71/66 % of ADA patients. Furthermore, JADAS-Remission was achieved by 35/44/50 % of ETA patients and 16/28/66 % of ADA patients. PedACR 50/70/90 response was achieved by 64/54/41 % of ETA patients and 56/33/22 % of ADA patients at the last treatment observation. Discontinuation because of remission or inefficacy was recorded in 24 (29 %) and 28 (33 %) patients, respectively. Seventy-nine adverse events and four serious adverse events were reported. Administration of ETA and ADA in JIA patients younger than 4 years was efficacious, well tolerated, and safe. Patients younger than 4 years may show marked improvement following anti-TNF-alpha therapy.

Background: Treatment response, remission rates and compliance in patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (polyJIA) treated with adalimumab, etanercept, or tocilizumab were analyzed in clinical practice., Methods: Data collected in the German BIKER registry were analyzed in patients with polyJIA who started treatment with approved biologics, adalimumab, etanercept or tocilizumab, from 2011 to 2015. Baseline patient characteristics, treatment response, safety and drug survival were compared., Results: Two hundred thirty-six patient started adalimumab, 419 etanercept and 74 tocilizumab, with differences in baseline patient characteristics. Baseline Juvenile Disease Activity Score (JADAS)10 (mean ± SD) in the adalimumab/etanercept/tocilizumab cohorts was 12.1+/-7.6, 13.8 ± 7.1 and 15.1 ± 7.4, respectively (adalimumab vs etanercept, p = 0.01), and Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ)-disability index scores was 0.43 ± 0.58, 0.59 ± 0.6 and 0.63 ± 0.55, respectively (adalimumab vs etanercept, p < 0.001). Uveitis history was more frequent in the adalimumab cohort (OR 5.73; p < 0.001). Balanced patients' samples were obtained by a generalized propensity score to adjust for baseline differences. Pediatric ACR30/50/70/90 criterion improvement after 3 months treatment was achieved by 68%/60%/42%/24% in the etanercept cohort, 67%/59%/43%/27% in the adalimumab cohort and 61%/52%/35%/26% in the tocilizumab cohort. At 24 months, JADAS minimal disease activity was achieved in 52.4%/61.3%/52.4% and JADAS remission in 27.9%/34.8%/27.9% patients in the adalimumab/etanercept/tocilizumab cohorts, respectively. Etanercept was used in 95.5% of patients as a first biologic, adalimumab in 50.8% and tocilizumab in 20.2%. There were no important differences in efficacy between first-line and second-line use of biologics. In total 60.4%/49.4%/31.1% patients discontinued adalimumab/etanercept/tocilizumab, respectively (HR for adalimumab 1.67; p < 0.001; HR for tocilizumab 0.35; p = 0.001). Drug survival rates did not differ significantly in patients on biologic monotherapy compared with combination therapy with methotrexate. Over 4 years observation under etanercept/adalimumab/tocilizumab, 996/386/103 adverse events, and 148/119/26 serious adverse events, respectively, were reported., Conclusions: In clinical practice, etanercept is most frequently used as first-line biologic. Adalimumab/etanercept/tocilizumab showed comparable efficacy toward polyJIA. Overall, tolerance was acceptable. Interestingly, compliance was highest with tocilizumab and lowest with adalimumab. This study provides the first indication for the comparison of different biologic agents in polyarticular JIA based on observational study data with all their weaknesses and demonstrates the need for well-controlled head-to-head studies for confirmation.

Importance: Published evidence on the long-term safety of etanercept (ETA) and adalimumab (ADA) in patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) is still limited., Objectives: To investigate the rates of serious adverse events (SAE) and of events of special interest (ESI) under ETA and ADA treatment., Design, Setting and Participants: Patients with pJIA were prospectively observed in the national JIA biological register, Biologika in der Kinderrheumatologie, and its follow-up register, Juvenile arthritis Methotrexate/Biologics long-term Observation., Main Outcomes and Measures: We calculated the relative risks of SAE and ESI for ETA and ADA compared with methotrexate (MTX)., Results: Among the 1414 patients treated with ETA (n=1414; 4461 exposure years (EY)) and ADA (n=320; 493 EY), significantly more SAE, infections and medically important infections were observed (ETA: 4.5, 5.7, 0.9; ADA: 4.7, 11.4, 0.4 per 100 EY) compared with those treated with MTX alone (n=1455; 2.907 EY; 2.6, 5.5, 0.5 per 100 EY). The risk for malignancies was not significantly increased for ETA and ADA compared with MTX (0.09, 0.27 and 0.07/100 person-years). Patients under ETA monotherapy developed more frequently incident inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and incident uveitis (0.5 and 0.8/100 EY) than patients treated by ETA in combination with MTX (0.1 and 0.2/100 EY) or MTX alone (0.03 and 0.1/100 EY)., Conclusions and Relevance: Our data confirm the acceptable long-term tolerability of ETA and ADA in pJIA. However, whether the onset of IBD and uveitis during ETA monotherapy is a paradoxical effect or an inadequate response to therapy remains unclear and requires further investigation in this growing cohort., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/)

Objective: Uveitis is a major extraarticular quality of life-restricting manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The aim of the study is to describe the occurrence of uveitis in JIA patients receiving tumor necrosis factor inhibitors or methotrexate (MTX)., Methods: Patients' characteristics, treatment, and the reported first occurrence of uveitis as an adverse event were searched in the Biologics in Pediatric Rheumatology Registry. The rates per exposed patients, exposure time, and time until event were calculated., Results: Uveitis was reported as an adverse event in 75 of 3,467 patients; 51 of 2,844 patients were receiving MTX, 37 of 1,700 patients were receiving etanercept, and 13 of 364 patients were receiving adalimumab. Patients with uveitis were younger (mean ± SD age 4.6 ± 4.2 versus 7.4 ± 4.5 years; P < 0.0001), more likely to be antinuclear antibody positive (69% versus 43%; odds ratio [OR] 2.7, P < 0.0001), and had extended oligoarticular JIA (OR 2.2, P = 0.0005). Patients with a uveitis diagnosis before starting treatment more often had a uveitis event (n = 28, 8.4%; OR 8.5, P < 0.0001), and more often received adalimumab (OR 2.15 [95% confidence interval 1.58-2.94], P < 0.0001). In 16 patients, a new uveitis event occurred: 11 while taking MTX (3.2 per 1,000 patient-years), 2 while taking etanercept monotherapy (1.9 per 1,000 patient-years), and 3 while taking etanercept and MTX combination (0.9 per 1,000 patient-years). A new uveitis event occurred early in the disease course after a median disease duration of 1.5 years (interquartile range [IQR] 1.3-3.8) while taking etanercept and 1.8 years (IQR 1.8-2.1) for the MTX cohort. A recurrent uveitis event was reported after a disease duration of 7.6 years (IQR 4.3-10.0) in the etanercept cohort and 4.8 years (IQR 1.0-5.8) in the MTX cohort. Univariate analysis showed that MTX, but not etanercept or adalimumab, led to a lower rate of uveitis., Conclusion: Patients with a history of uveitis had higher risks for uveitis events while taking both etanercept and adalimumab. Methotrexate turned out to be protective. Few patients developed a first uveitis event while taking etanercept, while the rate is comparable to that with MTX. Uveitis may not be attributed to be an adverse drug reaction to etanercept., (© 2015, American College of Rheumatology.)

Objective: Enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) is a juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) category, primarily affecting entheses and peripheral joints. This study evaluated efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics of adalimumab versus placebo in patients with ERA., Methods: This is a phase III, multicenter, randomized double-blind study in patients ages ≥6 to <18 years with ERA treated with adalimumab (24 mg/m(2) , maximum dose 40 mg every other week) or placebo for 12 weeks, followed by up to 192 weeks of open-label adalimumab. The primary end point was percent change from baseline in number of active joints with arthritis (AJC) at week 12. Samples were collected to determine adalimumab serum concentrations. Adverse events (AEs) were assessed throughout the study., Results: Forty-six patients were randomized (31 adalimumab/15 placebo). At baseline, mean age was 12.9 years, mean duration of ERA symptoms was 2.6 years, mean AJC was 7.8, and mean enthesitis count was 8.1. Mean percent change from baseline in AJC at week 12 was greater in the adalimumab group versus placebo (-62.6% versus -11.6%; P = 0.039). Most secondary variables favored adalimumab versus placebo at week 12. Treatment response further increased with continued adalimumab therapy through week 52. Mean steady-state adalimumab serum concentrations were 7.5-11.8 μg/ml, similar to patients age ≥2 years with polyarticular JIA. AE rates were similar between placebo and adalimumab: any AE (53.3% versus 67.7%), serious AEs (0% versus 3.2%), and infectious AEs (20.0% versus 29.0%)., Conclusion: Adalimumab reduced signs and symptoms of ERA at week 12, with improvement sustained through week 52. The safety profile was consistent with previous adalimumab studies., (© 2015 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.)

Introduction: The introduction of biological therapies opened a new era of treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. After 15 years of experience with the first biologics for treatment of pediatric rheumatic disease, long-term safety effects are of great interest., Areas Covered: This review summarizes published knowledge about safety aspects from clinical trials as well as from biologic registries in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients. Beside infusion and injection reactions, the occurrence and aggravation of infections, the occurrence of a second autoimmune diseases, including uveitis, psoriasis, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes mellitus, as well as cytopenias and the development of malignancies are major concerns regarding treatment with biologics., Expert Opinion: The safety profiles of approved biologics, the TNF-α inhibitors etanercept and adalimumab, and the IL-6-inhibitor tocilizumab are highly acceptable. This conclusion is not easily expandable to the IL-1 inhibitor canakinumab as well as the T-cell-activation-inhibitor abatacept due to lack of experience; however, both have showed an excellent safety profile so far. An increase in knowledge about risk profiles in national and international collaborations, with national as well as international registries, is necessary.