The State of Clinical Research in Vasculitis: 2021

Summary

The past 25 years have witnessed extraordinary advancement in the clinical research in vasculitis, with the successful completion of many clinical trials that have led to marked changes in the standard of care, drug approval by regulatory agencies and improved outcomes for patients. The successes of these trials are a direct result of several factors, especially the development and use of standardized disease definitions and outcome measures, the formation of research networks to foster international collaboration, effective partnerships with the biopharmaceutical industry and patient advocacy groups. 

Further exemplifying success in the field, the first-ever set of ACR/Vasculitis Foundation treatment guidelines for different vasculitides were developed. These guidelines were presented at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting, with plans for publication in 2021. These guidelines were strongly influenced by the clinical trials conducted in the past two decades and epitomize the tremendous progress made in this field.

Shubhasree Banerjee, MD, is an assistant professor of clinical medicine, Penn Vasculitis Center, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Contact her at [email protected].

Peter A. Merkel, MD, MPH, is a professor of medicine and epidemiology, Penn Vasculitis Center, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, University of Pennsylvania. Contact him at [email protected].

Disclosures

Dr. Merkel reports receiving funds for the following activities in the past two years:

• Consulting: AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Biogen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, ChemoCentryx, CSL Behring, Forbius, Genentech/Roche, Genzyme/Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, InflaRx, Insmed, Janssen, Kiniksa, Magenta, Pfizer, Sparrow and Talaris.
• Research: AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, ChemoCentryx, Forbius, Genentech/Roche, Genzyme/Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and InflaRx.
• Royalties: UpToDate.