Bimekizumab shows long-term psoriasis clearance
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Complete or near complete skin clearance was reported in an extension study in the majority of patients with psoriasis who received bimekizumab, according to a press release.
Interim data from the BE BRIGHT trial were presented by Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, dean for clinical therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and chairman emeritus, Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology, at the American Academy of Dermatology Summer Meeting in Tampa, Florida.
An interleukin (IL)-17A and IL-17F inhibitor, bimekizumab (UCB) is an investigational humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody designed to selectively and directly inhibit the two cytokines.
“From the pivotal trials, we saw that a very high proportion of patients treated with bimekizumab achieved the highest levels of clearance we’ve ever seen with a biologic,” Lebwohl told Healio. “We knew that the drug worked well. We also knew that it worked quickly. But the question then becomes, ‘Does that last?’ And very clearly from this study, it does.”
Patients who completed one of the three phase 3 bimekizumab studies — BE READY, BE VIVID and BE SURE — were eligible to enroll in the ongoing, multicenter, open-label extension BE BRIGHT study.
At 16 weeks, clear or almost clear skin was recorded in 87.5% of patients randomly assigned to bimekizumab, while 62.7% achieved Psoriasis Area Severity Index 100 score. Of those who had clear or almost clear skin, more than 90% maintained that clearance to week 100. In addition, of those who achieved PASI 100 at week 16, those results were maintained at week 100 in 80.7% and 86.1% with continuous every 4 weeks and every 8 weeks maintenance dosing, respectively.
In addition, those rerandomized to every 8-week dosing after the initial 16 weeks of every 4-week treatments showed a lower number of adverse events in the extension study.
The most common side effect was oral thrush, according to Lebwohl. In the every 4-week group, 16.4 per 100 patient years developed thrush, while 9.6 per 100 patient years developed thrush in the every 8-week group, he said.
“The efficacy exceeds what we had seen until now with any other treatments we have,” Lebwohl said. “The drug works quickly, the effect is durable, and the side effect profile is pretty minor.”