ORLANDO -- Vedolizumab (Entyvio) and infliximab (Remicade) led to mostly similar 1-year outcomes in patients with ulcerative colitis previously untreated with a biologic, but the integrin receptor antagonist vedolizumab slightly edged out the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker in some areas, according to a real-world dataset.
At 52 weeks, there was no significant difference in clinical remission (82.3% vs 77.4%, respectively) or steroid-free clinical remission (84.8% vs 83.1%), but more patients taking vedolizumab achieved endoscopic remission (47.4% vs 33.1%, P=0.03), Sandro da Costa Ferreira, MD, of Ribeirão Preto Medical School at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues reported.
"Both vedolizumab and infliximab are effective in biologic-naive ulcerative colitis patients," the authors concluded in a poster presentation at the Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases meeting. "However, vedolizumab demonstrated superior endoscopic outcomes, higher treatment persistence, and a better safety profile, supporting its use as a first-line therapy."
The two agents are standard initial options for moderate-to-severe disease, but little data exist comparing their efficacy in the real world. No head-to-head trials exist and a prior comparison of the drugs' respective clinical trial data suggested similar rates of clinical remission but a higher likelihood of steroid-free clinical remission and endoscopic remission with infliximab.
For their study, da Costa Ferreira and colleagues conducted a retrospective, multicenter study of 297 patients with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis, defined as having a total Mayo score of 6-12 and an endoscopic score of at least 2. None of the patients had previously received biologics.
The researchers assessed patient outcomes at 12 weeks (post-induction), 26 weeks, and 52 weeks, with 141 patients taking the integrin receptor antagonist vedolizumab and 156 patients taking the TNF blocker infliximab. Only 52-week data were reported at the meeting.
For the primary endpoints, the authors defined clinical remission as a partial Mayo score of 2 or less and endoscopic remission as a Mayo subscore of 0. They also used propensity-score adjustment to correct for bias.
In secondary endpoints, clinical response was not significantly different at 52 weeks between those taking vedolizumab and those taking infliximab (90.7% vs 88.3%). Biochemical remission -- defined as C-reactive protein of no more than 0.5 mg/dL and/or fecal calprotectin of no more than 150 μ/g -- was also no different at that point (42.5% vs 35.1%, respectively).
However, vedolizumab outperformed infliximab in the proportion of patients who had endoscopic response -- an endoscopic Mayo subscore of 0-1 -- and in rates of treatment persistency, with less need for drug optimization:
- Endoscopic response: 78.4% vs 62.7%, respectively (P<0.001)
- Treatment persistency: 80.8% vs 61.8% (P<0.001)
- Drug optimization: 19.2% vs 36.7% (P=0.03)
Need for hospitalization was also substantially and significantly lower for patients on vedolizumab (0.71% vs 9.1% with infliximab, P<0.001). But secondary loss of response was similar between the two groups (15% vs 20.3%).
Incidence of adverse events (AEs) was numerically higher for infliximab than vedolizumab, though the difference was not significant (46.1% vs 34%, P=0.17). Infection rates were also similar between (20.5% vs 15.8%, respectively). More arthralgia occurred with vedolizumab than infliximab (12.1% vs 3.8%) but less infusion reactions (none vs 5.1%)
More serious AEs occurred with infliximab (18.5%) than vedolizumab (6.4%), but significance for this difference was not reported.
Disclosures
The authors did not report having any disclosures or external funding.
Primary Source
Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
da Costa Ferreira S, et al "Clinical effectiveness and safety of vedolizumab versus infliximab in biologic-naïve ulcerative colitis patients: a real-world multicentric observational study" AIBD 2024.