NEJM's publication of VARSITY a fillip for Takeda

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on Thursday will publish important results online from the VARSITY study, the first head-to-head clinical trial in ulcerative colitis.

This study is a comparison of Takeda’s (TYO: 4502) Entyvio (vedolizumab) and AbbVie’s (NYSE: ABBV) mega blockbuster Humira (adalimumab), and showed the superiority of the Japanese company’s therapy in achieving the primary endpoint of clinical remission at week 52.

Treatment with Entyvio was associated with significantly higher percentages of mucosal healing at week 52 compared to patients treated with adalimumab, though was not superior in the percentage of patients using oral corticosteroids at baseline who discontinued corticosteroids and were in clinical remission at week 52.