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Gerilimzumab Seen as Potentially Affordable Treatment for Patients with RA
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Gerilimzumab may be a low cost treatment option for patients with rheumatoid arthritis as the treatment may require subcutaneous injections every 8 weeks, according to the results of two studies with healthy adult volunteers.
According to a press release from Bird Rock Bio, the half-life of gerilimzumab, an anti-interleukin-6 (IL-6) antibody, appeared to be 50 days, with a proposed dosing regimen of 5 mg to 10 mg once every 8 weeks for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
“IL-6 is a well-validated target for RA, and gerilimzumab, a novel anti-IL-6 antibody, has a unique pharmacokinetic profile supporting low and infrequent dosing,” Paul Grayson, chief executive officer of Bird Rock Bio, said in the release. “With the ability to provide an extremely low dose every other month, we can price gerilimzumab as low as $2,000 per patient, per year. With more than 20 million rheumatoid arthritis patients globally, many of whom do not have access to the most advanced therapies, gerilimzumab represents a tremendous opportunity for innovation to provide affordable access to a best-in-class therapy worldwide. This could save health care systems around the world billions of dollars in the future.”
“As clinicians, we have seen the beneficial impact on patients from the advancements of biologic treatments for RA over the past 20 years,” Mark Genovese, MD, professor of medicine and co-chief of the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University Medical Center and director of Bird Rock Bio’s gerilimzumab clinical advisory board, said in the release. “IL-6 inhibitors, specifically, have emerged as a safe and effective class of therapy both as first-line biologic treatments and second line for those patients where tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors are not effective. The recent clinical findings of gerilimzumab indicate a further large opportunity to increase convenience for patients through less frequent dosing and greatly reduce the current high cost of care of RA.”
The studies included 50 volunteers, and no serious adverse events were reported. Submission of a pivotal trial is planned for the first half of 2016.
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Michael C. Schweitz, MD
The biggest obstacle to treatment for many of our patients is the affordability of biologic agents, which have become central to many treatment programs. We know that interleukin-6 inhibitors can be effective and safe for many patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Gerilimzumab may have significant advantages in providing an affordable agent that increases accessibility to more of our patients, while also providing a more convenient, longer dosing interval.
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