Takeda's Entyvio beats Humira for remission in ulcerative colitis, exploratory data show

Takeda has unveiled exploratory data on its gut-selective biologic drug Entyvio (vedolizumab) at the 2019 Digestive Disease Week, demonstrating its superiority over AbbVie’s best-selling anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNFα) therapy Humira (adalimumab) in achieving remission in moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).

The findings showed that a higher proportion of patients receiving Entyvio intravenously achieved a clinical response after 14 weeks of treatment, with 67.1% reporting a response compared to 45.9% of those who received Humira subcutaneously.

Ultimately, after 52 weeks of treatment, 31.3% of Entyvio patients achieved clinical remission in UC compared to just 22.5% of those in the Humira group.

“Exploratory data from the Varsity study suggest that more patients experienced early symptomatic response and improvement of microscopic intestinal inflammation with vedolizumab as compared to adalimumab,” explained Dr Bruce E Sands, primary investigator of the Varsity study and Chief of the Dr Henry D Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine. “In clinical practice there is a need to balance early symptomatic improvement alongside the longer-term treatment goal of helping patients to achieve clinical remission, making these findings important to physicians.”

Dr Jeff Bornstein, Executive Medical Director at Takeda, commented on the findings: “Patients benefit from clinical trials that advance our understanding of the disease. The Varsity study, a first-of-its-kind comparison of two biologics in ulcerative colitis, provides valuable information that can help inform treatment decisions, while also increasing our understanding of how these treatments are working at a microscopic level. Data from the Varsity study show consistent results for vedolizumab, supporting the use of this treatment as a first-line biologic therapy in ulcerative colitis.”

Matt Fellows