Effectiveness and safety of vedolizumab as induction therapy in refractory IBD patients in real clinic praxis
Vedolizumab (VDZ), gut-selective alpha4beta7 integrin antibody, was assessed in the phase 3 GEMINI studies and demonstrated
efficacy in inducing and maintaining remission in both inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), ulcerative colitis
(UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Patients enrolled in registration trials are not entirely representative of those encountered
in the clinical practice setting. Thus, establishing the efficacy and durability of VDZ in the context of real-world clinical
practice is essential to the appropriate position in the treatment algorithms in both UC and CD. After the preliminary
report of induction therapy with VDZ in an own set of 9 refractory IBD patients, we evaluated the results of eight
last published postmarketing studies especially for induction of clinical response and clinical remission in the week 6
and 14. Based on currently available data from cohorts in Europe and North America, VDZ is safe, well-tolerated medication
also in a refractory IBD population with the comparably good efficacy of induction therapy in both UC and CD
in a clinical setting, outside of a randomised controlled trial.