Patients living with the chronic pain of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may soon have a new choice for treatment.
Officials from AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company based in Chicago, Illinois, have announced that they have moved into Phase II of a clinical trial of JAK1 inhibitor ABT-494. The investigational drug is a once-daily oral therapy.
The trial, which is already underway, involves adult patients who have not responded to other therapies.
"We continue to leverage our expertise in rheumatology and immunology to address the unmet needs of patients living with immune-mediated diseases, including those that fail to respond to the current standard of care," Dr. Scott Brun, vice president of pharmaceutical development at AbbVie, said. "We are optimistic that our robust Phase III clinical trial program, which dosed the first patient in December, will help us further understand the therapeutic potential of ABT-494 across multiple patient populations and achieve our goal of providing patients with best-in-class treatment options."
Data from the second phase of the ABT-494 trial was released in Sept. 2015. RA patients were treated with six, 12 and 18-milligram doses twice daily or 24 milligrams once daily.
Phase III trials will include five studies. Enrollment for the first two is underway now in the U.S. Researchers are seeking for the first study adult patients with moderate to severe RA who have not responded to prior therapy with MTX (including Humira). For the second study, researchers are seeking patients who did not respond to or could not tolerate treatment with synthetic DMARDs.
For information on this clinical trial program or to inquire about enrolling, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov.
