Background Combined therapy with vedolizumab and corticosteroids may improve clinical response or remission in Crohn’s disease. The aim of this study is to assess efficacy and safety/tolerability of vedolizumab plus stable doses of corticosteroids at baseline during induction therapy in moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease. Methods A post hoc exploratory analysis was performed on data from GEMINI 2 (NCT00783692) and GEMINI 3 (NCT01224171), which assessed outcomes following induction therapy over 6- and 10-week periods, respectively. Patients receiving vedolizumab or placebo were stratified by corticosteroid use at baseline. Efficacy endpoints were clinical remission (CR; Crohn’s Disease Activity Index [CDAI] score ≤150 points) and enhanced clinical response (ECR; decrease of ≥100 points in CDAI score from baseline), assessed at week 6 (GEMINI 2 and GEMINI 3) and week 10 (GEMINI 3). Safety endpoints included the incidence of adverse events. Results Vedolizumab plus corticosteroids resulted in higher CR rates than placebo plus corticosteroids at week 6 in GEMINI 2 and at week 6 and week 10 in GEMINI 3. More patients receiving vedolizumab plus corticosteroids achieved CR at week 6 in GEMINI 2 and at week 10 in GEMINI 3 than patients receiving vedolizumab alone. Vedolizumab plus corticosteroids also resulted in significantly higher ECR rates than placebo plus corticosteroids at all timepoints in both studies. More patients receiving vedolizumab plus corticosteroids achieved higher ECR rates at week 6 in GEMINI 2 and at week 10 in GEMINI 3 than patients receiving vedolizumab alone. Adverse event incidence was similar across groups. Conclusions Vedolizumab in combination with stable doses of corticosteroids at baseline may improve induction of clinical response or remission in moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease. Trial registration numbers NCT00783692, NCT01224171.

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Mizolastine is a new, nonsedating antihistamine providing satisfactory symptom relief in allergic conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the onset of hay fever symptoms could be delayed in patients known to suffer seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms if mizolastine was given before the pollen season. This double-blind study involved 342 patients, randomly allocated to once-daily 10 mg mizolastine (n = 115), once-daily 120 mg terfenadine (n = 116), or placebo (n = 111) groups. All patients started treatment on 1 May, before the onset of the grass pollen season. The prophylactic effect of test drugs was assessed on their ability to delay the time to the first hay fever crisis of the season, which was defined by the occurrence of one of the following events: use of rescue medication, study withdrawal because of treatment failure, or total diary symptom score over 18. Active treatments prolonged the time to the first crisis by approximately 1 week (mizolastine 55 days, terfenadine 57 days) in comparison with placebo (50 days) (survival curve analysis: Logrank test, P = 0.01; Wilcoxon test, P = 0.03). Tolerability was satisfactory and comparable between groups. Thus, mizolastine can be safely used to delay and to treat symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis.

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