Bruce Sands, MD: Results from the VEGA Study for Ulcerative Colitis

Many investigators fear the limits of monotherapies for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may soon be reached.

However, new results from the VEGA study shows a combination therapy of guselkumab and golimumab could be an effective answer for treating patients with ulcerative colitis.

In the phase 2a proof-of-concept trial, investigators found 83.1% of patients in the treatment group achieved a clinical response and 36.6% of patients treated with the combination therapy achieved clinical remission.

The high rates of clinical response and remission are both higher than the response and remission rates of patients treated with guselkumab alone (74.6%; 21.1%) and golimumab alone (61.1%; 22.2%).

There was also a greater proportion of patients who achieved endoscopic improvement and endoscopic normalization.

Guselkumab is an interleukin (IL)-23p19 subunit antagonist, while golimumab is a tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) antagonist.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Bruce E. Sands, MD, MS, Chief of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Mount Sinai Hospital, and lead study author, explained why a study like VEGA is needed at this time.

The safety results of the trial was also favorable, with adverse events comparable among different treatment groups.