Why carry out this study?

In 2021, upadacitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor, received approval for treating patients with psoriatic arthritis who have responded inadequately to or who are intolerant to one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

To date, little is known about the efficacy of Janus kinase inhibitors concerning their effectiveness in treating oligo- and polyarticular psoriatic arthritis (oPsA, pPsA) as common phenotypes of psoriatic arthritis.

Particularly in oPsA, data on the effectiveness of Janus kinase inhibitors are lacking given the restrictions in clinical trials selection criteria frequently focusing on pPsA.

Here we report the final results of the UPJOINT study which aimed to investigate the achievement of minimal disease activity (MDA) and very low disease activity (VLDA) in patients with pPsA and oPsA treated with upadacitinib and followed up for 48 weeks.

What was learned from the study?

Our results highlight the effectiveness of upadacitinib in both disease phenotypes investigated in this study. By week 12 post-treatment initiation, 51.6% of the patients with oPsA and 33.7% of the patients with pPsA achieved MDA. These outcomes remained stable, with similar proportions sustained through the end of the observational period at week 48.

Regarding the evaluation of MDA/VLDA components, it was found that predominantly patient-reported components hindered patients from achieving MDA/VLDA.