Cardiovascular Safety of Ozanimod in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis: True North and Open-Label Extension Analyses

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Evaluating cardiovascular safety of sphingosine 1 -phosphate (S1P) receptor modulators is warranted due to S1P receptor expression on cardiomyocytes and vascular endothelial cells. This analysis reports the cardiovascular safety of ozanimod, an S1P receptor modulator, in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis from the phase 3 True North (TN) and open -label extension (OLE). METHODS: All patients who received ozanimod in TN (n = 796) and all eligible TN patients who entered the OLE (n = 823) were included. Cardiovascular -related adverse events were evaluated in patients with up to 146 weeks of ozanimod exposure (2219 patient -years), which included 52 weeks during TN. RESULTS: On TN day 1, fi rst -dose ozanimod resulted in a 0.2 beats per minute mean decrease in heart rate from pretreatment to hour 6; 2 patients experienced bradycardia, which resolved without treatment modi fi cation. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure increases of 5.1 and 2.2 mm Hg, respectively, were observed at TN week 52. No second-degree Mobitz type II atrioventricular block events were reported; 1 third-degree atrioventricular block unrelated to ozanimod occurred in the OLE. Cardiac and vascular treatment -emergent adverse events were infrequent (3.8% [31 of 823] and 8.5% [70 of 823]); no ozanimod-related cardiovascular deaths occurred. The incidences of deep -vein thrombosis (0.2%; 2 of 823), pulmonary embolism (0.2%; 2 of 823), and ischemic stroke (0.4%; 3 of 823) in the OLE were low. CONCLUSIONS: No new cardiovascular safety signals were identi fi ed, consistent with fi ndings from previous ozanimod studies. There were few major adverse cardiovascular events or thromboembolic events, which were unrelated or unlikely related to ozanimod. Ozanimod has a well -tolerated cardiovascular safety pro fi le when prescribed in accordance with the label. Clinical trial registry website and trial numbers: ClinicalTrials.gov numbers: NCT02435992 and NCT02531126.