Today, Sept.1st, the FDA announced its decision regarding tofacitinib's safety concerns from the Oral Surveillance study - handing down warnings for not only Pfizer's JAK inhibitor, but also for other marketed JAK inhibitors from AbbVie and Eli Lilly & Co. These safety concerns arise from the Oral Surveillance study - a large, post-marketing, safety trial of tofacitinib versus adalimumab in high risk patients. New warnings about the

A new descriptive series shows an uncommon association between IgA vasculitis (IgAV) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), with most cases interestingly arising after  or during anti-TNF-α therapy. A retrospectively analysis of the GETAID and FVSG networks identified, 43 patients with both IgAV and IBD, in 38 (88%) the IBD (mainly Crohn’s disease (CD) preceded IgAV by a median interval of 9.2 years.

Data from 4 parallel case-control studies within The Health Improvement Network looked at risk factors for developing psoriatic arthritis (PsA), psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) showed both shared and differentiating risk factors, but statin use was protective in all 4 conditions.

TNFi are frequently used first line in RA patients; and a new analysis shows that repeat use of TNFi dominates over the use of non-TNFi biologics when the initial TNFi therapy has failed. This retrospective analysis of commercial insurance records analyzed the patterns of drug use in adult RA patients who switched to their second biologic or targeted disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.