Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Month: Treatment Advances in CD

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a type of inflammatory bowel disorder with a Canadian prevalence of approximately 319 per 100,000 individuals. CD causes swelling of the tissues in your digestive tract, which can lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition.

Several molecules are commercially available to treat moderate-to-severe CD in Canada, but the latest approval came a few weeks ago when risankizumab became the first interleukin (IL)-23 inhibitor approved in Canada. This represents the first approval for CD in Canada since ustekinumab, an IL-12/23 inhibitor, which was approved in early 2020. In Phase III induction trials, a higher proportion of patients receiving risankizumab compared to placebo reported statistically significant improvements in the patient-reported outcomes of abdominal pain score and stool frequency, as well as other endoscopic endpoints at Week 12, with improvements sustained to Week 52 in the Phase III maintenance trial.

It is exciting to have another treatment available for patients with CD with several other molecules currently under investigation!

- Karamjeet Singh