‘Strong’ Treatment Predictions in Inflammatory Myositis
Transcription
Hello, welcome to RheumNow, our great coverage of EULAR 2026 in London. And just to let everyone know, London had a heat wave. It's gone now. It's going to rain every day. There's a tube strike and the sun's not out, it's cold, but it's still a fun meeting.
So I want to talk about strong treatment predictions in inflammatory myositis. I think everyone's aware for many years we treated inflammatory myositis really going down an algorithm — glucocorticoids, steroid-sparing drugs like methotrexate, MMF, or tacrolimus, and then more severe cases IVIG or rituximab, and rarely cyclophosphamide. And let's be honest, all this stuff was off-label. Then there were some data on JAK inhibitors such as JAK1 tofacitinib — no RCT, but an observational study that could help both inflammatory myositis but also helping calcinosis a bit.
But we got a new kid on the block. So what am I going to tell you about? It's a TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor and if I don't say it right, please forgive me. It's called brepocitinib, and this drug has actually now had a publication of a positive phase three study. It's called the VALOR V trial. And there are going to be two abstracts presented at EULAR here. The abstracts are poster 0264 and oral presentation OP0166.
So what did they learn? I think it's really important to understand that in this positive trial it was inflammatory myositis that was dermatomyositis. So they looked at muscle and skin, and they looked at steroid-sparing potential, and in all cases the active treatment was superior with about a double response on average, and 241 patients with dermatomyositis. So steroid tapering, better improvement on skin and on the muscle features that they looked at — and they used various scores that you really don't need to go into. I think the bottom line is that it was positive.
And then where I want to put this for you to understand is in a context. So there are a lot of studies going on in inflammatory myositis. The FcRn blockers — there are three of them in studies. Then there are also other studies like interferon beta signaling with a drug called Dazukibart. There's anifrolumab, so interferon, and then there's the Toll-like receptor and pattern which also is in a positive phase 2 lupus study, it's in phase three, and then there's a whole bunch of other drugs.
So I think the most important thing is we now have strong data to guide our treatment, and I think that when we get these other results from other phase two and three studies we're going to have a lot to offer our patients, hopefully in the future, on label. Keep following us — it's at RheumNow and you'll be hearing lots at EULAR 2026 from the RheumNow crowd. Thank you.
So I want to talk about strong treatment predictions in inflammatory myositis. I think everyone's aware for many years we treated inflammatory myositis really going down an algorithm — glucocorticoids, steroid-sparing drugs like methotrexate, MMF, or tacrolimus, and then more severe cases IVIG or rituximab, and rarely cyclophosphamide. And let's be honest, all this stuff was off-label. Then there were some data on JAK inhibitors such as JAK1 tofacitinib — no RCT, but an observational study that could help both inflammatory myositis but also helping calcinosis a bit.
But we got a new kid on the block. So what am I going to tell you about? It's a TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor and if I don't say it right, please forgive me. It's called brepocitinib, and this drug has actually now had a publication of a positive phase three study. It's called the VALOR V trial. And there are going to be two abstracts presented at EULAR here. The abstracts are poster 0264 and oral presentation OP0166.
So what did they learn? I think it's really important to understand that in this positive trial it was inflammatory myositis that was dermatomyositis. So they looked at muscle and skin, and they looked at steroid-sparing potential, and in all cases the active treatment was superior with about a double response on average, and 241 patients with dermatomyositis. So steroid tapering, better improvement on skin and on the muscle features that they looked at — and they used various scores that you really don't need to go into. I think the bottom line is that it was positive.
And then where I want to put this for you to understand is in a context. So there are a lot of studies going on in inflammatory myositis. The FcRn blockers — there are three of them in studies. Then there are also other studies like interferon beta signaling with a drug called Dazukibart. There's anifrolumab, so interferon, and then there's the Toll-like receptor and pattern which also is in a positive phase 2 lupus study, it's in phase three, and then there's a whole bunch of other drugs.
So I think the most important thing is we now have strong data to guide our treatment, and I think that when we get these other results from other phase two and three studies we're going to have a lot to offer our patients, hopefully in the future, on label. Keep following us — it's at RheumNow and you'll be hearing lots at EULAR 2026 from the RheumNow crowd. Thank you.
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