Taylor PC, et al. - In clinical studies of baricitinib, an oral, selective JAK1 and JAK2 inhibitor approved in more than 50 countries for the treatment of moderately-to-severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), researchers assessed the frequency of cardiovascular and venous thromboembolic events. Pooling data from 9 RA studies, they identified 3,492 RA patients who received baricitinib (7,860 patient-years of exposure). Data from 6 studies revealed placebo comparison up to 24 weeks. From 4 studies and from the associated long-term extension study, data was used for randomized dose comparison between baricitinib doses of 2 mg and 4 mg. Outcomes suggest that baricitinib treatment was not associated with the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events, arterial thrombotic events, or congestive heart failure. They noted 6 deep vein thrombosis (DVT)/pulmonary embolism (PE) events in patients treated with 4 mg baricitinib, however, there were no cases of DVT/PE in the placebo group. During longer-term evaluation, the baricitinib dose groups had a similar incidence of DVT/PE, with consistent IR values over time, and this was similar to the rates previously reported in patients with RA.