Vonoprazan Versus Lansoprazole for Healing and Maintenance of Healing of Erosive Esophagitis: A Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND & AIMS: For decades, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been the mainstay of treatment for erosive esopha-gitis. The potassium-competitive acid blocker vonoprazan pro-vides more potent acid inhibition than PPIs, but data on its efficacy for erosive esophagitis are limited. METHODS: Adults with erosive esophagitis were randomized to once-daily vono-prazan, 20 mg, or lansoprazole, 30 mg, for up to 8 weeks. Patients with healing were rerandomized to once-daily vonoprazan, 10 mg, vonoprazan, 20 mg, or lansoprazole, 15 mg, for 24 weeks. Primary end points, percentage with healing by week 8 endoscopy, and maintenance of healing at week 24 endoscopy, were assessed in noninferiority comparisons (noninferiority margins, 10%), with superiority analyses prespecified if noninferiority was demon-strated. Analyses of primary and secondary end points were performed using fixed-sequence testing procedures. RESULTS: Among 1024 patients in the healing phase, vonoprazan was noninferior to lansoprazole in the primary analysis and superior on the exploratory analysis of healing (92.9 vs 84.6%; difference, 8.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.5%-12.2%). Secondary analyses showed vonoprazan was noninferior in heartburn-free days (difference, 2.7%; 95% CI, -1.6% to 7.0%), and superior in healing Los Angeles Classification Grade C/D esophagitis at week 2 (difference, 17.6%; 95% CI, 7.4%-27.4%). Among 878 patients in the maintenance phase, vonoprazan was noninferior to lansoprazole in the primary analysis and superior on the secondary analysis of maintenance of healing (20 mg vs lanso-prazole: difference, 8.7%; 95% CI, 1.8%-15.5%; 10 mg vs lanso-prazole: difference, 7.2%; 95% CI, 0.2%-14.1%) and secondary analysis of maintenance of healing Grade C/D esophagitis (20 mg vs lansoprazole: difference, 15.7%; 95% CI, 2.5%-28.4%; 10 mg vs lansoprazole: difference, 13.3%; 95% CI, 0.02%-26.1%). CON-CLUSIONS: Vonoprazan was noninferior and superior to the PPI lansoprazole in healing and maintenance of healing of erosive esophagitis. This benefit was seen predominantly in more severe erosive esophagitis. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04124926).

Automated summary

This study found that vonoprazan, a potassium-competitive acid blocker, was noninferior and superior to the PPI lansoprazole in healing and maintenance of erosive esophagitis, particularly in patients with more severe cases.