Liver and Bile

Gastroenterology. 2022;163(6):1630–42.e3

Murillo Perez CF, Fisher H, Hiu S, Kareithi D, Adekunle F, Mayne T, Malecha E, Ness E, van der Meer AJ, Lammers WJ, Trivedi PJ, Battezzati PM, Nevens F, Kowdley KV, Bruns T, Cazzagon N, Floreani A, Mason AL, Parés A, Londoño MC, Invernizzi P, Carbone M, Lleo A, Mayo MJ, Dalekos GN, Gatselis NK, Thorburn D, Verhelst X, Gulamhusein A, Janssen HLA, Smith R, Flack S, Mulcahy V, Trauner M, Bowlus CL, Lindor KD, Corpechot C, Jones D, Mells G, Hirschfield GM, Wason J, Hansen BE; GLOBAL PBC Study Group, UK-PBC Consortium

Greater transplant-free survival in patients receiving obeticholic acid for primary biliary cholangitis in a clinical trial setting compared to real-world external controls

Background and aims: The Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) Obeticholic Acid (OCA) International Study of Efficacy (POISE) randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that OCA reduced biomarkers associated with adverse clinical outcomes (i.e., alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase) in patients with PBC. The objective of this study was to evaluate time to first occurrence of liver transplantation or death in patients with OCA in the POISE trial and open-label extension versus comparable non-OCA-treated external controls.
Methods: Propensity scores were generated for external control patients meeting POISE eligibility criteria from 2 registry studies (Global PBC and UK-PBC) using an index date selected randomly between the first and last date (inclusive) on which eligibility criteria were met. Cox proportional hazards models weighted by inverse probability of treatment assessed time to death or liver transplantation. Additional analyses (Global PBC only) added hepatic decompensation to the composite end point and assessed efficacy in patients with or without cirrhosis.
Results: During the 6-year follow-up, there were 5 deaths or liver transplantations in 209 subjects in the POISE cohort (2.4%), 135 of 1381 patients in the Global PBC control (10.0%), and 281 of 2135 patients in the UK-PBC control (13.2%). The hazard ratios (HRs) for the primary outcome were 0.29 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.10–0.83) for POISE versus Global PBC and 0.30 (95% CI: 0.12–0.75) for POISE versus UK-PBC. In the Global PBC study, HR was 0.20 (95% CI: 0.03–1.22) for patients with cirrhosis and 0.31 (95% CI: 0.09–1.04) for those without cirrhosis; HR was 0.42 (95% CI: 0.21–0.85) including hepatic decompensation.

Conclusions: Patients treated with obeticholic acid in a trial setting had significantly greater transplant-free survival than comparable external control patients.

DOI: DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2022.08.054