Head, neck dermatitis improved with rocatinlimab

MILAN — Patients with atopic dermatitis of the head and neck who did not have success with topical therapy experienced greater improvement with rocatinlimab treatment.

“For all of our patients with atopic dermatitis, the head and neck are an area of big concern to them. The face is our business card, and it’s important we don’t have rashes on the face,” Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, the Waldman Professor and System Chair of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told Healio. “So, this is an important area. We now have a new drug that not only will potentially provide some additional benefit because it may be disease modifying, but it also works very well on the face.”

Guttman-Yassky presented results of a post hoc analysis of 219 patients with head and neck dermatitis (HND) treated with rocatinlimab, a monoclonal antibody targeting TH1 and TH2 immune cells, compared with placebo at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.

Emma Guttman-Yassky

Subjects were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous rocatinlimab 150 mg or 600 mg every 4 weeks for 36 weeks; rocatinlimab 300 mg or 600 mg for 2 weeks for 36 weeks; or placebo for 18 weeks followed by rocatinlimab 600 mg every 2 weeks through week 36.

All four rocatinlimab groups had EASI score improvement compared with placebo in the head and neck. Mean reductions in the rocatinlimab groups were –43.9 (150 mg), –59.4 (600 mg), –60.3 (300 mg) and –65.2 (600 mg), compared with –16.7 for the placebo group.

Responses were maintained after treatment discontinuation for up to 20 weeks.

“One important thing to note about this is that it targets both TH2 and TH1 immunity, and TH1 immunity may be involved in some of the facial rashes, so it may add some benefit,” Guttman-Yassky said.

A phase 3 trial of rocatinlimab will begin early in 2023, she added.