Peficitinib, a JAK3-selective inhibitor that blocks the signal transduction and then suppresses immune responses, has been developed for the treatment of patients with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We assessed the relative efficacy and safety of once-daily administration of peficitinib (a JAK3-selective inhibitor) 25 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg, and 150 mg in patients with active RA.
A Bayesian network meta-analysis was conducted to combine direct and indirect evidence from eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The literature search was performed up to May 2019 using MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register.
Three RCTs involving 948 patients met the inclusion criteria. There were ten pairwise comparisons, including five direct comparisons and five interventions. The American College of Rheumatology 20% (ACR20) response rate was significantly higher in the peficitinib 150-mg group than in the placebo group (odds ratio (OR): 3.61; 95% credible interval (CrI): 2.35-5.57). Similarly, the ACR20 response rate was significantly higher in the peficitinib 100-mg group than in the placebo group (OR: 2.33, 95% CrI: 1.51-3.56). The peficitinib 50-mg group had a significantly higher ACR20 response rate than the placebo group. However, the ACR20 response rate was not significantly higher in the peficitinib 25-mg group than in the placebo group. The ranking probability based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) indicated that peficitinib 150 mg was likely to achieve the best ACR20 response rate (SUCRA = 0.995), followed by peficitinib 100 mg (SUCRA = 0.696), peficitinib 50 mg (SUCRA = 0.558), peficitinib 25 mg (SUCRA = 0.153), and placebo (SUCRA = 0.098). The ACR50 and ACR70 response rates showed a similar distribution pattern to the ACR20 response rate. The difference in the number of patients with adverse events (AEs) among the intervention groups was not statistically significant.
Peficitinib 50, 100, and 150 mg once daily was effective in treating active RA, without causing a significant risk for AEs.