Humira effective in early studies for treatment of HS

Adalimumab (Humira, AbbVie) is demonstrating effectiveness in early trials for the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa, a condition that as of yet has no approved treatment.

AbbVie announced results of a post-hoc analysis of an investigational phase 2 study evaluating Humira in the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) after 16 weeks of therapy, according to a news release.

The analysis found that Humira induced a significant response rate in adult patients at week 16 versus placebo for the two dosing regimens assessed. The efficacy of the drug was re-assessed in this analysis using the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response (HiSCR) measure, which is an endpoint defined as at least a 50 percent reduction from baseline in total abscess and inflammatory nodule count, with no increase in counts for abscesses and draining fistulas. Specifically, HiSCR response rates were for HS patients given placebo were 25.6 percent, 33.3 percent for those given Humira every other week, and 54.5 percent for those given Humira weekly.

“Although hidradenitis suppurativa affects a significant number of people, there is no approved treatment option for this underserved patient group,” Gregor Jemec, M.D., department of dermatology, University of Copenhagen Roskilde Hospital, says in the news release. “These phase 2 study results suggest Humira could be a promising therapeutic option in patients with moderate-to-severe HS and will be further evaluated in phase 3 trials.”

Over and above the study results, according to the company, the data substantiate HiSCR as a more responsive method than HS-PGA-based clinical response to determine improvement in patients and demonstrate that HiSCR may be a useful new tool to assess the efficacy of HS therapy in clinical practice and research trials.

“AbbVie developed the HiSCR endpoint to help advance hidradenitis suppurativa research and address the need for a reliable and relatively simple measure of clinical response in HS,” AbbVie vice president John Medich, Ph.D., says in the statement.

Study results were presented at the 22nd Congress of the European Dermatology and Venereology, held last week in Istanbul. 

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