0:03
Hi, it's Dr. Janet Pope. My Twitter handle is Janet Berdo.
0:08
I'm tweeting at the ACR 2026 in Orlando, Florida with the RheumNow group.
0:14
I wanted to talk about strong data in myositis.
0:17
So, a little bit of a pun intended. There was a whole session dedicated to myositis and there were lots of good abstracts, but I am going to pick a few.
0:29
So abstract 0904 was talking about efgartigimod — and hopefully I say it right.
0:35
It's an FcRn receptor and it has a late breaking abstract that'll be later in the week showing that it has positive RCT data in phase 3 for inflammatory myositis.
0:46
But the abstract 0904 was talking about how this drug, as an FcRn receptor, can lower gammaglobulins but it can also lower antibodies which could be pathogenic.
0:58
So also 9005, the next oral abstract, was on nipocalimab and it also is being studied very heavily in inflammatory myositis.
1:11
Moving on to abstract 0906. It was on ruxolitinib, which is a JAK inhibitor.
1:23
It's a drug that's used commonly in diseases in hematology.
1:26
And this was a very interesting study and I'll tell you the pros and the cons.
1:32
So it was rescue therapy for very severe MDA5 inflammatory myositis and they looked at patients who were very sick, in hospital, some in the
1:42
intensive care unit, and they looked at rescue treatment with ruxolitinib and they compared it to standard of care before, or patients that didn't get
1:53
this treatment.
1:53
And they actually found a lot of interesting findings — faster improvement and improved survival short-term and longer term.
2:02
So one of the questions that was asked: well, would this be the drug that we should use?
2:06
It's uncontrolled — well, it is controlled by historical, but it's non-randomized, non-blinded — or should we look at another JAK that now has approval in the US, which will come to the next question.
2:18
So on abstract 0907, this was a subanalysis of the VALOR randomized control trial, and that's brepocitinib — brepocitinib is a JAK1/TYK2 inhibitor and it has positive RCT data.
2:35
It's already gone through the FDA for inflammatory myositis, and they were looking at lots of different sub-analyses at this meeting.
2:45
But this abstract was looking at patients that made it to low disease activity, clinical remission, and improvement of HAQ — at least a lowering of the HAQ score — and all those outcomes favored the active treatment versus placebo, which was on standard of care that patients had already failed.
3:03
So I think what is really important is we have more and more data in inflammatory myositis and I think more excitement to come. Follow us at RheumNow. Thank you.
If you are a health practitioner, you may Login/Register to comment.
Due to the nature of these comment forums, only health practitioners are allowed to comment at this time.