AbbVie announced positive top-line results from Select-GCA, a Phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, showing upadacitinib in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen achieved its primary endpoint of sustained remissiona from week 12 through week 52 in adults with giant cell arteritis (GCA).

In this study, 46 percent of patients receiving upadacitinib 15 mg in combination with a 26-week steroid taper regimen achieved sustained remission compared to 29 percent of patients receiving placebo in combination with a 52-week steroid taper regimen (p=0.0019).

"Many people living with GCA continue to suffer from the potentially debilitating symptoms of this disease, with limited treatment options available to them," said Kori Wallace, M.D., Ph.D., vice president, global head of immunology clinical development, AbbVie.

“These results demonstrate our relentless commitment to improving the lives of people living with immune-mediated diseases by developing new treatments where significant medical needs still exist.”

"I am encouraged by these results, which add to the body of evidence supporting the efficacy and safety profile of upadacitinib for the treatment of rheumatic diseases," said Daniel Blockmans, M.D., Ph.D., Department of General Internal Medicine, University Hospitals Gasthuisberg, Belgium, professor of medicine, KU Leuven, Belgium, and lead investigator of the SELECT-GCA trial. "Based on these results, upadacitinib has the potential to be the first oral treatment option for patients with GCA, a disease with inflammation of the large arteries that primarily impacts older people and has only one approved treatment to date3 commonly used with steroids."