2024 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 78-85
Objective: This retrospective study compared the clinical efficacy and safety of baricitinib（BARI）and filgotinib（FIL）in Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis（RA）over a 24-week period．
Methods: We enrolled 98 RA patients who received either BARI or FIL therapy and could be followed for 24 weeks from two facilities between September 2017 and February 2023．Patients in the BARI group（n=67）and FIL group（n=31）were compared for outcomes including Disease activity score-28 for RA with CRP（DAS28-CRP），Simplified Disease Activity Index（SDAI），rheumatoid factor（RF），and matrix metalloproteinase-3（MMP-3）．Adverse events were also assessed for safety evaluation．
Results: In the BARI and FIL groups，average age at treatment initiation was 69.2 ± 13.0 years and 64.6 ± 13.9 years，and the mean disease duration was 163.6 ± 174.1 months and 144.5 ± 115.8 months，respectively．The number of pre-treatment b/tsDMARDs used varied．Both groups showed significant improvements in DAS28-CRP and SDAI at 24 weeks versus baseline，with no remarkable differences in change rate observed between the groups at any time point．RF and MMP-3 showed tendencies towards improvement at 24 weeks．Continuation rate was 77.7% in the BARI group and 74.2% in the FIL group．Adverse events included a 3.0% incidence of malignancy and 1.5% incidence of herpes zoster in the BARI group，with none recorded in the FIL group．
Conclusion: Comparable results were observed for the clinical efficacy and safety of BARI and FIL in RA patients over a 24-week treatment period．Larger studies are warranted to confirm our results．
