Nemolizumab promising atopic dermatitis treatment for pediatric patients

Key takeaways:

• Pediatric patients treated with nemolizumab saw a statistically significant improvement in pruritus.
• Nemolizumab has been efficacious in atopic dermatitis and pruritus treatment in adolescents and adults.

Pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis whose pruritus has not been successfully controlled with topical treatments have seen success with nemolizumab, according to a study.

“The chronic, inflammatory skin condition atopic dermatitis (AD) is reported to affect up to 25% of children, causing distress for patients, anxiety for parents and concern for medical professionals,” Atsuyuki Igarashi, MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology at NTT Medical Center, Tokyo, and colleagues wrote.

“The humanized monoclonal antibody nemolizumab, administered subcutaneously and used concomitantly with topical agents, has been shown in clinical trials of adults and adolescent (aged 13 years) with AD to reduce pruritus and improve QoL,” the researchers continued.

Igarashi and colleagues conducted a two-part, multicenter, phase 3 study in which patients aged 6 to 12 years with AD and pruritus uncontrolled by other methods were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive nemolizumab 30 mg or placebo every 4 weeks.

After 16 weeks of treatment, those in the nemolizumab group showed a mean difference in 5-level itch score of –1.3 from baseline compared with –0.5 in the placebo group, which was a statistically significant difference of –0.8 (95% CI, –1.1 to –0.5).

A weekly mean itch score of 1 or less at week 16 was achieved by 11 of the 45 patients in the treatment group and only one patient in the placebo group.

EASI scores were reduced by 52.4 in the treatment group and 41.5 in the placebo group.

Adverse events were mild with one injection site reaction recorded and no patients discontinuing treatment due to AEs.

“Our data indicate that nemolizumab is a potential new treatment option for pediatric AD patients whose pruritus has not been sufficiently improved with TCS/TCI and antihistamines,” the authors wrote.