What Ustekinumab Provides in Long-Term IBD Care

Despite a bevy of biologics available for people struggling with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), not all patients are able to respond to or tolerate a vast majority of approved therapies.Fortunately, new data presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2022 suggests that ustekinumab (STELARA) could function as an alternative option to bio-failure and bio-naïve patients living with these inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).Pooled data from four long-term phase 2 and 3 studies of bio-naïve IBD patients found that event rate per 100 patient-years for adverse events (AE), serious AEs, infection, malignancies, and more were similar and/or numerically lower for patients who received ustekinumab compared to those on placebo.Similar event rates were observed in five phase 2/3 IBD studies of bio-failure patients over a 5-year period.Additionally, new phase 2 data showed that participants treated with guselkumab who had inadequate responses to conventional therapies achieved high levels of clinical-biomarker response, endoscopic response, and clinical remission compared to those on placebo.For this episode of DocTalk, Assistant Managing Editor Kenny Walter spoke with  Remo Panaccione, MD, Director of the IBD Clinic and Director of Gastroenterology Research at the University of Calgary, of the implications of the new ustekinumab and guselkumab data on long-term IBD care.