Emerging therapies for the treatment of ulcerative colitis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic idiopathic autoimmune inflammatory disorder, primarily affecting the gastrointestinal system. There are many patients affected that do not respond well to therapy and many others to which there is a loss of efficacy every year. The proportion of patients who have already experienced anti-TNF therapy is constantly increasing, making the development of new drugs with alternative mechanisms of action an important need for the treatment of UC.

Areas covered: This review aims on emerging drugs in the treatment of UC and reviews data on their efficacy and safety.

Expert opinion: UC, for many years, comparatively to CD, received little attention for several possible reasons, especially because it was not considered as a progressive disease able to induce irreversible bowel damage. This has led to lower investments by the scientific community and a slower development of therapeutic options for UC. In the past few years, this trend has started to change. In fact, new promising drugs have been developed and others are emerging with positive results. Although many treatment modalities have recently been approved, additional drugs are currently being investigated and will probably be part of the UC treatment regimen in the coming years.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-IL23
• integrins blockers
• janus kinase inhibitors
• S1P modulators
• emerging drugs
• ulcerative colitis

Declaration of interest

S Danese has served as a speaker, a consultant, and an advisory board member for Abbvie, Ferring, Hospira, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Millennium Takeda, Mundipharma, Pfizer, Tigenix, UCB Pharma, and Vifor. L Peyrin-Biroulet received consulting fees from Merck, Abbvie, Janssen, Genentech, Mitsubishi, Ferring, Norgine, Tillots, Vifor, Pharmacosmos, BMS, UCB-pharma, Hospira, Celltrion, Takeda, Biogaran, Boerhinger-Ingelheim, Lilly, Pfizer, HAC-Pharma, Index Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Sandoz, Forward Pharma GmbH, Celgene, Biogen, Lycera, Samsung Bioepis, and lecture fees from Merck, Abbvie, Takeda, Janssen, Ferring, Norgine, Tillots, Vifor, Mitsubishi, and HAC-pharma. 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.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.