Filgotinib for the treatment of Crohn’s disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are widespread diseases (with an estimated 2.2 million Europeans affected), and even populations previously considered ‘low risk’ (such as Japan and India) are witnessing an increasing incidence. CD is a chronic, progressive immunologically driven disease, with an evolution characterized by succession of periods of progression and remission. New physiopathological pathways are continuously being discovered, the more we understand about how the disease appears and progresses, the more targets become available for the development of novel therapies.

Areas covered: Filgotinib is one of these promising new therapies; this article discusses the currently available data. We used an exhaustive search of the PubMed database to corroborate information regarding its chemical characteristics, and the studies evaluating clinical efficacy and safety.

Expert opinion: Up to now, the phase-II study evaluating Filgotinib yielded very promising results in moderate to severe CD patients, with good clinical response, mucosal healing, while having few and moderate adverse effects, both in anti-TNF naïve and resistant patients. Phase-III studies are still ongoing and will help decide whether Filgotinib will be a worthwhile drug in the treatment of CD and the best way to use it.

KEYWORDS:

• Filgotinib
• Crohn’s disease
• JAK inhibitor
• treatment

Declaration of Interest

X. Roblin has previously served as a consultant for Gilead and Pfizer. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they have been the Principle investigator on the FITZROY study with Filgotinib and served as a consultant for Galapagos, Gilead, and Pfizer.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.