UCB's Cimzia fails to beat Humira in RA study

UCB Group (Euronext:UCB) said its Cimzia certolizumab pegol plus methotrexate failed to show superiority to Humira adalimumab from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) plus methotrexate in the Phase IV EXXELERATE trial to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Both mAbs against tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha are approved to treat RA.

Cimzia missed the co-primary endpoints of percentage of patients achieving ACR20 response at week 12 (69.2% vs. 71.4% for Humira) and the percentage achieving low disease activity, as measured by DAS28-ESR score at week 104 (35.5% vs. 33.5% for Humira). ...