Eli Lilly’s novel eltrekibart shows early promise in hidradenitis suppurativa
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Key takeaways:
- Eltrekibart is a novel monoclonal antibody that binds to the ligands that signal CXCR1 and CXCR2.
- 65.6% of patients taking eltrekibart achieved a Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response score of 50.
NEW ORLEANS — A novel monoclonal antibody could be a promising treatment for hidradenitis suppurativa as phase 2 clinical trial results showed an improvement in total abscess and nodule count after 16 weeks of treatment.
Eltrekibart (LY3041658, Eli Lilly) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to the seven ligands that signal through CXCR1 and CXCR2, according to Seth Forman, MD, owner of ForCare Medical Group, who presented trial results at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.
“Hidradenitis suppurativa is a very difficult condition. We’ve been actively seeking an excellent therapy for about 10 to 12 years,” Forman said. “It is a chronic, recurrent, inflammatory, debilitating skin disease.”
In the phase 2 clinical trial, researchers randomly assigned 67 patients (mean age, 36.8 years; age range, 18-65 years; 70% women) with hidradenitis suppurativa for at least 6 months to receive 600 mg of eltrekibart or placebo intravenously every 2 weeks for 16 weeks. After this initial trial period, all patients received the study drug for an additional 20 weeks of treatment.
A Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response score of 50 (HiSCR50) was achieved by 65.6% of patients in the drug study group at week 16 compared with 41.4% of non-augmented placebo-treated patients and 32.3% of augmented placebo-treated subjects.
Analysis also found a Bayesian posterior probability of 99.9% for eltrekibart being better than augmented placebo.
Total abscess and inflammatory nodule count reduced by 6.8 in the drug treatment cohort and by 3 in the placebo group.
Of the 22 patients taking eltrekibart who achieved success at 16 weeks and stayed on the drug, 18 (81.8%) maintained that response at week 36.
For the 11 patients who did not achieve success in the initial trial period, five (45.5%) achieved HiSCR50 at week 36.
In a video exclusive with Healio, Ajay Nirula, MD, PhD, senior vice president of immunology at Eli Lilly, further discussed the trial results and the company’s dedication to the space.
“[Hidradenitis suppurativa] is one of the most severe dermatologic diseases. There aren’t many treatment options and it really has a terrible negative impact on quality of life for these patients,” Nirula said.
“We are really trying to develop new medicines,” he continued, “especially first-in-class medicines that really target large unmet needs for patients across the spectrum of immunologic diseases, and dermatology is a very big part of that.”
Of the treatment-emergent adverse events patients experienced, which were all considered mild or moderate, the most common was infections (eltrekibart, 13.3%; placebo, 18.2%).
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Forman S, et al. Safety and efficacy of LY3041658, a novel septa-specific monoclonal antibody to CXCR1 and CXCR2 ligands, in a phase 2 study in hidradenitis suppurativa. Presented at: American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 17-21, 2023; New Orleans.
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