Real-life data shows dupilumab safe for Black patients with atopic dermatitis

Key takeaways:

• Fewer Black vs. white patients treated with dupilumab for atopic dermatitis experienced adverse events (25% vs. 51%).
• The difference in adverse events was not statistically significance.

NEW ORLEANS — Although Black patients with atopic dermatitis treated with dupilumab experienced fewer adverse events than their white counterparts, the difference did not reach statistical significance, according to a poster presented here.

“We wanted to look at what the adverse events were, but also, what is the breakdown when you look at it by race,” Tatiana M. Barrera, BA, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine and the lead author of the study, told Healio. “We know that in clinical trials, the representation of our skin of color patients such as Black, Latino and Asian are pretty low, so we wanted to look at real-world data to see if the adverse events are similar to those in clinical trials.”

The investigators conducted a retrospective chart review of patients treated with subcutaneous dupilumab 300 mg/2 mL every 2 weeks. Prescriptions were filled between 2017 and 2021.

Of 445 individuals included in the review, 49.21% were white, 29.21% were Black or African American, 17.3% were another skin of color demographic and 4.27% were unknown or declined to answer.

There were 25 dupilumab-associated adverse events that occurred in the 130 Black patients, 51 that occurred in the 219 white patients, 12 that occurred in the 77 other skin of color patients and five that occurred in the 19 unknown/declined to answer patients.

While numerically lower adverse events were reported in the skin of color populations, the numbers did not reach statistical significance.

“The biggest take home is that dupilumab is a medication that is safe for people who come from different backgrounds,” Barrera told Healio. “As clinicians we can have these discussions with our patients, address it with cultural sensitivity, [discuss] if there are some hesitations with injections or biologic medications. When you really go over these real-life data ... this medication is pretty safe.”