FRIDAY, Oct. 23, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, oral icotrokinra, a peptide that blocks the interleukin-23 receptor, yields a clinical response at week 12 significantly more often than placebo, according to a study published in the Oct. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Maria T. Abreu, M.D., from Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a phase 2, double-blind, randomized trial of oral icotrokinra in adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Participants were randomly assigned to receive icotrokinra at a once-daily dose of 400 mg, 200 mg, or 100 mg or placebo (63, 62, 64, and 63 individuals, respectively).
The researchers found that with respect to a clinical response at week 12, all icotrokinra doses were superior to placebo (63, 58, and 55 versus 27 percent in the 400-, 200-, and 100-mg groups versus placebo, respectively). Compared with the placebo group, the 400-mg group had significantly higher percentages of participants with clinical remission at week 12 (30 versus 11 percent), participants with symptomatic remission (46 versus 19 percent), and participants with endoscopic improvement (37 versus 14 percent). The percentage of participants with adverse events was 60, 66, 66, and 62 percent in the 400-, 200-, 100-mg groups and the placebo group, respectively, through week 28; the corresponding percentages of serious adverse events were 2, 5, 0, and 10 percent.
"Icotrokinra was effective even in hard-to-treat patients who had failed previous drug regimens," Abreu said in a statement. "The fact that the medicine can be taken orally will help us improve the range of options we have for treating patients."
Several authors disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, which manufactures icotrokinra and funded the study.
