Brivekimig

Atopic dermatitis (AD) represents the most common skin disease characterized by heterogeneous endophenotypes and a high disease burden. In Europe, six new systemic therapies for AD have been approved: the biologics dupilumab (anti‐interleukin‐4 receptor (IL‐4R) α in 2017), tralokinumab (anti‐IL‐13 in 2021), lebrikizumab (anti‐IL‐13 in 2023), and the oral janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors (JAKi) targeting JAK1/2 (baricitinib in 2020 in the EU) or JAK1 (upadacitinib in 2021 and abrocitinib in 2022). Herein, we give an update on new approvals, long‐term safety, and efficacy. Upadacitinib and abrocitinib have the highest short‐term efficacy among the approved systemic therapies. In responders, dupilumab and tralokinumab catch up regarding long‐term efficacy and incremental clinical benefit within continuous use. Recently, the European Medicines Agency has released recommendations for the use of JAKi in patients at risk (cardiovascular and thromboembolic diseases, malignancies, (former) smoking, and age ≥65 years). Furthermore, we give an overview on emerging therapies currently in Phase III trials. Among the topical therapies, tapinarof (aryl hydrocarbon receptor), ruxolitinib (JAK1/2i), delgocitinib (pan‐JAKi), asivatrep (anti‐transient receptor potential vanilloid), and phosphodiesterase‐4‐inhibitors (roflumilast, difamilast) are discussed. Among systemic therapies, current data on cord‐blood‐derived mesenchymal stem cells, CM310 (anti IL‐4Rα), nemolizumab (anti‐IL‐31RA), anti‐OX40/OX40L‐antibodies, neurokinin‐receptor‐1‐antagonists, and difelikefalin (κ‐opioid‐R) are reported.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory skin disease with significant unmet need. Blockade of the OX40–OX40 ligand (OX40L) costimulation pathway by targeting OX40L on antigen-presenting cells (APCs) with a fully human noncytotoxic, nondepleting anti-OX40L monoclonal antibody (amlitelimab; SAR445229; KY1005) is a novel way to modulate persistent inflammation.

To assess the safety and efficacy of amlitelimab over 16 weeks in adults with AD in a phase IIa double-blind placebo-controlled study.

The study was conducted at 19 hospitals in Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK. Eligible patients with moderate-to-severe AD were randomized (1 : 1 : 1) to low-dose intravenous (IV) amlitelimab (200 mg), high-dose IV amlitelimab (500 mg) or placebo, followed by three maintenance doses (50% of loading dose) at 4, 8 and 12 weeks, with safety follow-up to week 36. The co-primary endpoints were the incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (all patients who received ≥ 1 dose of the study drug) and mean percentage change in Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) to week 16 (full analysis set).

Between 13 December 2018 and 12 May 2020, 89 patients were randomly assigned to low- (n = 29) or high-dose amlitelimab (n = 30) or placebo (n = 29), of whom 88 proceeded to treatment [37 women (42%), 51 (58%) men; mean (SD) age 33.6 (11.9) years]. Amlitelimab was generally well tolerated with an unremarkable safety profile; no hypersensitivity events were reported. For the primary endpoint, the least square mean percentage change in EASI from baseline to week 16 was –80.12% [95% confidence interval (CI) –95.55 to –64.68; P = 0.009 vs. placebo] and –69.97% (95% CI –85.04 to –54.60; P = 0.07 vs. placebo) for the low- (n = 27) and high-dose (n = 27) amlitelimab groups, respectively, vs. –49.37% (95% CI –66.02 to –32.72) for placebo (n = 24). Numerically greater reductions in EASI were observed for amlitelimab vs. placebo from weeks 2 to 16.

Novel targeting of OX40L-expressing APCs with amlitelimab was well tolerated and resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in AD.