Comparison of Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) to Humira (adalimumab) in adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis fails to meet primary endpoint for superiority- UCB

UCB has announced that The Lancet published full results from EXXELERATE, the first head-to-head superiority study of two treatments in the anti-TNF class. The study compared Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) plus methotrexate (MTX) to Humira (adalimumab) plus MTX in adult patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were inadequate responders to MTX. The study did not meet its primary endpoints for superiority, demonstrating no statistically significant difference in efficacy between Cimzia and Humira in combination with MTX in both short-term (12-week) and long-term (2-year) evaluations.

However, data from the study demonstrated that switching between these anti-TNFs without a wash-out period was beneficial to some patients. The percentage of patients achieving an ACR20 response at three months was 69.2 percent versus 71.4 percent with Cimzia and Humira, respectively, and the percentage of patients achieving a state of low disease activity (LDA) at two years were 35.5 percent versus 33.5 percent, respectively.

See: "Head-to-head comparison of certolizumab pegol versus adalimumab in rheumatoid arthritis: 2-year efficacy and safety results from the randomised EXXELERATE study" Josef S Smolen et al. The Lancet, 15 November 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31651-8