Filgotinib Effectiveness in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Observational Analysis of a Large Multicenter Cohort

ntroduction: The efficacy and safety of fil-
gotinib (FIL) for the treatment of patients with
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been evaluated in
a number of randomized controlled trials. How-
ever, there is a scarcity of real-world studies eval-
uating the effectiveness, persistence, tolerability,
and safety of FIL in everyday clinical practice.
This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and
retention rate of FIL in a real-world cohort of
patients with RA.
Methods: A multicenter retrospective cohort
study of patients with RA treated with FIL was
conducted in 27 Italian tertiary referral rheuma-
tology centers. The drug retention rate (DRR)
was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method,
while multivariate Cox regression was used to
detect potential factors affecting drug survival
and persistence in therapy. Disease activity score
(DAS28-CRP) was assessed at baseline and after
6 and 12 months.esults: We enrolled 204 patients (80%
female). The DRR of FIL was 90.2% (95% con-
fidence interval (CI) 86–94.6%), 75.1% (95% CI
68.5–82.4%), and 64.7% (95% CI 56.3–74.3%)
at months 6, 12, and 18, respectively. The
DRR was negatively associated with the line of
treatment and the presence of rheumatoid fac-
tor. Effectiveness was evaluated as DAS28-CRP
response. At 6 months, DAS28-CRP remission
was observed in 65 (36.1%) patients, and remis-
sion or low disease activity in 98 (54.4%). At
12 months, DAS28-CRP remission was observed
in 64 (50.0%) patients, and remission or low dis-
ease activity in 81 (63.2%).