No increase in acute cardiovascular events with JAK inhibitors

Epidemiologists of the Pharmacoepidemiology group headed by Prof. Anja Strangfeld from the German Rheumatism Research Centre (DRFZ), a Leibniz-Institute, recently published current data on the safety of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The results do not indicate an increased rate of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, strokes or cardiovascular-related deaths compared to other drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

In recent years, the results of the “ORAL Surveillance” study have caused great uncertainty. In this clinical trial, severe cardiovascular events occurred slightly more frequently under therapy with the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib than with tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors.

The epidemiologists around Dr Yvette Meißner investigated the question of whether the increased risk is also detectable in routine rheumatological care. To this end, they analysed observational data from the RABBIT register. RABBIT has been documenting the course of disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice for many years.

The study results from RABBIT do not show an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events for patients treated with JAK inhibitors compared to either TNF inhibitors or conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs such as methotrexate. This also applies to patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease or a history of heart attack or stroke.