Hannover Medical School

Johnson & Johnson's icotrokinra (JNJ-2113) met the primary endpoint of a Phase IIb ulcerative colitis (UC) study, building on its recent success in psoriasis. The IL-23-blocking oral peptide could also boost the company's efforts to stay ahead in immunology as Stelara (ustekinumab) stares down biosimilar competition.In the ANTHEM-UC study, J&J tested three once-daily doses of icotrokinra and found that the highest one led to a clinical response in 63.5% of patients after 12 weeks, compared to just 27% for placebo. The drug also showed "meaningful differences" on secondary measures like clinical remission, with 30.2% of patients on the highest dose achieving remission versus 11.1% for placebo. J&J said the benefits kept improving through week 28, with a favourable safety profile.The trial enrolled 252 patients with moderately to severely active UC who'd had an inadequate response or intolerance to conventional therapy. More ANTHEM-UC results will be shared at upcoming medical congresses."These impressive findings show the potential of icotrokinra to transform the treatment paradigm… by offering a distinctive combination of therapeutic benefit, tolerability, and convenience with a once-daily oral treatment," said Esi Lamousé-Smith, gastroenterology disease area lead at J&J, in a release Monday.The icotrokinra results complement J&J's recent efforts to strengthen its IL-23 lineup, including September's FDA approval of Tremfya (guselkumab) for UC with intravenous induction and subcutaneous maintenance, and a pending application for a fully subcutaneous regimen. According to data presented last month, Tremfya's SC induction demonstrated significantly higher rates of clinical remission (27.6% vs 6.5%) and response (65.6% vs 34.5%) versus placebo at week 12 in the Phase III ASTRO trial.Both icotrokinra and Tremfya are being positioned to help offset expected revenue declines from Stelara, which saw a 4.6% global sales drop in 2024 as biosimilars enter the market.The UC data for icotrokinra follows its strong showing in psoriasis at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) meeting over the weekend. The ICONIC-ADVANCE 1 and 2 trials not only met their primary endpoints of achieving clear or nearly clear skin, but also demonstrated superiority to Bristol Myers Squibb's oral TYK2 inhibitor Sotyktu (deucravacitinib). See – ViewPoints: AAD25 – J&J leadership tells how icotrokinra is upping the ante across the board in psoriasis.

THURSDAY, Feb. 27, 2025 -- Free-breathing phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived parameters can identify a distinct lung phenotype in children and adolescents with post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), according to a study published online Feb. 25 in Radiology . Gesa H. Pöhler, M.D., from Hannover Medical School in Germany, and colleagues conducted a single-center, prospective, cross-sectional study between April 2022 and April 2023 involving children and adolescents aged 17 years and younger with PCC and matched healthy participants to detect lung changes using PREFUL MRI. The analysis included 54 participants: 27 with PCC and 27 matched controls; 21 had cardiopulmonary symptoms. The researchers found that participants with PCC had lower regional ventilation and quantified perfusion. Compared with matched control participants, participants with PCC and cardiopulmonary symptoms had lower flow-volume loop correlation metrics and higher ventilation defect and perfusion defect percentage. Greater lung perfusion correlated with increased chronic fatigue severity and higher ventilation-perfusion mismatch correlated with increased heart rate in participants with PCC. "Phase-resolved functional lung MRI reveals a distinct perfusion phenotype in children and adolescents with PCC, correlating with heart rate and chronic fatigue severity," the authors write. "These findings enhance our understanding of PCC pathophysiologic structure and establish a foundation for future research." Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries. Abstract/Full Text Editorial Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 26, Blood flow problems within the lungs could be driving long COVID in some children, according to scans using an advanced form of MRI. Children and teens with long COVID appear to have significantly reduced blood flow through their lungs, researchers reported in the journal Radiology . This could cause fatigue -- one of the more common symptoms of long COVID in children – due to lower levels of oxygen distributed throughout the body via the bloodstream, researchers said. The study’s results might explain why kids with normal breathing still suffer from fatigue related to long COVID, researchers said. “Parents should understand that their children’s persistent symptoms after COVID-19 may have a measurable physiological basis, even when standard medical tests appear normal,” lead researcher Dr. Gesa Pöhler , a senior physician of diagnostic and interventional radiology at Hannover Medical School in Germany, said in a news release. Long COVID involves symptoms that develop weeks after a person’s initial COVID-19 infection. These symptoms can persist for months or even years. The most common symptoms of long COVID in children are chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, heart palpitations and poor concentration, researchers said in background notes. For the study, researchers turned to a type of imaging scan called phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) MRI. This form of MRI can analyze the movement of air in and out of the lungs, as well as blood flow through the lungs. Adults with long COVID typically are examined using chest CT scans, but doctors are loath to use the same imaging technology on children because it exposes kids to radiation, researchers said. MRI scans use magnetic waves and can be performed while a patient breathes freely, making it a more suitable procedure for children, researchers said. Researchers performed PREFUL MRI scans on 54 patients between 11 and 17 years of age. Half had been diagnosed with long COVID, and the other half were healthy. Compared to the healthy kids, children and teens with long COVID had reduced blood flow through their lungs, results show. Furthermore, all but one of these kids with long COVID suffered mainly from fatigue. “Importantly, the severity of fatigue symptoms correlated with these blood flow changes, suggesting a possible biological basis for the patients’ ongoing symptoms,” Pohler said. Earlier studies also have observed this reduction in lung blood flow in adults, researchers noted. They theorize that a person’s initial bout with COVID might cause lasting damage to the tiny blood vessels in the lungs, leading to this reduction in blood flow. This sort of imaging could help guide the monitoring and treatment of children with long COVID in the future, researchers said. The findings were published Feb. 25. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.