IBD Evidence

Evidence map

Inflammatory bowel disease biologics: what the evidence base looks like

14 publications, 0 of them trials and 14 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 4 min read 14 citations

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What the evidence on inflammatory bowel disease biologics is made of Of 14 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 14 meta-analysis. 14meta-analysis (14)
14 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

The synthesis is ahead of the primary literature here — reviews and meta-analyses drawing on a modest number of underlying studies. Treat confident conclusions with the caution the sample size deserves.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the inflammatory bowel disease biologics literature was published Publication years for the 14 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. 2020-20227 papers2023 onwards4 papers2015-20193 papers
Still active. The most recent paper here is from 2025, so this is a field where an answer written today may not hold for long. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

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The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Comparative Efficacy of Advanced Therapies for Management of Moderate-to-Severe Crohn's Disease: 2025 AGA Evidence Synthesis — Singh S, Murad MH, Yuan Y et al., 2025, meta-analysis
  2. Comparative Efficacy of Advanced Therapies for Management of Moderate-to-Severe Ulcerative Colitis: 2024 American Gastroenterological Association Evidence Synthesis — Ananthakrishnan AN, Murad MH, Scott FI et al., 2024, meta-analysis
  3. Single-cell meta-analysis of inflammatory bowel disease with scIBD — Nie H, Lin P, Zhang Y et al., 2023, meta-analysis
  4. JAK inhibitors and the risk of malignancy: a meta-analysis across disease indications — Russell MD, Stovin C, Alveyn E et al., 2023, meta-analysis
  5. Efficacy and safety of biologics and small molecule drugs for patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis00377-0) — Lasa JS, Olivera PA, Danese S et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  6. Dual Biologic or Small Molecule Therapy for Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis — Ahmed W, Galati J, Kumar A et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  7. Comparative efficacy and safety of infliximab and vedolizumab therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis — Peyrin-Biroulet L, Arkkila P, Armuzzi A et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  8. Efficacy of Biologic Drugs in Short-Duration Versus Long-Duration Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and an Individual-Patient Data Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials — Ben-Horin S, Novack L, Mao R et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  9. Altered Bioavailability and Pharmacokinetics in Crohn's Disease: Capturing Systems Parameters for PBPK to Assist with Predicting the Fate of Orally Administered Drugs — Alrubia S, Mao J, Chen Y et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  10. Long-term dietary patterns are associated with pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory features of the gut microbiome — Bolte LA, Vich Vila A, Imhann F et al., 2021, meta-analysis
How much research is there on inflammatory bowel disease biologics?
14 publications are indexed here, of which 0 are trials and 14 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2025. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Comparative Efficacy of Advanced Therapies for Management of Moderate-to-Severe Crohn's Disease: 2025 AGA Evidence Synthesis Singh S, Murad MH, Yuan Y, et al. · Gastroenterology · 2025 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 41114682Full text
  2. Comparative Efficacy of Advanced Therapies for Management of Moderate-to-Severe Ulcerative Colitis: 2024 American Gastroenterological Association Evidence Synthesis Ananthakrishnan AN, Murad MH, Scott FI, et al. · Gastroenterology · 2024 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 39425738Full text
  3. Single-cell meta-analysis of inflammatory bowel disease with scIBD Nie H, Lin P, Zhang Y, et al. · Nature computational science · 2023 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 38177426
  4. JAK inhibitors and the risk of malignancy: a meta-analysis across disease indications Russell MD, Stovin C, Alveyn E, et al. · Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 37247942Full text
  5. Altered Bioavailability and Pharmacokinetics in Crohn's Disease: Capturing Systems Parameters for PBPK to Assist with Predicting the Fate of Orally Administered Drugs Alrubia S, Mao J, Chen Y, et al. · Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 36056298Full text
  6. Dual Biologic or Small Molecule Therapy for Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Ahmed W, Galati J, Kumar A, et al. · Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 33798711
  7. Efficacy and safety of biologics and small molecule drugs for patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis Lasa JS, Olivera PA, Danese S, et al. · The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 34856198
  8. Efficacy of Biologic Drugs in Short-Duration Versus Long-Duration Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and an Individual-Patient Data Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Ben-Horin S, Novack L, Mao R, et al. · Gastroenterology · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 34757139
  9. Comparative efficacy and safety of infliximab and vedolizumab therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis Peyrin-Biroulet L, Arkkila P, Armuzzi A, et al. · BMC gastroenterology · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 35676620Full text
  10. Long-term dietary patterns are associated with pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory features of the gut microbiome Bolte LA, Vich Vila A, Imhann F, et al. · Gut · 2021 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 33811041Full text
  11. Ulcerative Colitis-Diagnostic and Therapeutic Algorithms Kucharzik T, Koletzko S, Kannengiesser K, et al. · Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 33148393Full text
  12. The association between endometriosis and autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis Shigesi N, Kvaskoff M, Kirtley S, et al. · Human reproduction update · 2019 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 31260048Full text
  13. Genome-wide association study implicates immune activation of multiple integrin genes in inflammatory bowel disease de Lange KM, Moutsianas L, Lee JC, et al. · Nature genetics · 2017 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 28067908Full text
  14. Association analyses identify 38 susceptibility loci for inflammatory bowel disease and highlight shared genetic risk across populations Liu JZ, van Sommeren S, Huang H, et al. · Nature genetics · 2015 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 26192919Full text