Atul Deodhar, MD: Long-Term Data on Bimekizumab for Ankylosing Spondylitis

Long-term findings on investigational bimekizumab in treating adult patients with ankylosing spondylitis showed sustained improvements for up to 5 years, and this research was presented at the American College of Rheumatology 2023 Convergence.

Bimekizumab has not been approved in the US for ankylosing spondylitis, though the drug is approved for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis treatment among adults who are candidates for systemic therapy or for phototherapy.

In this interview segment with the HCPLive editorial team, Atul Deodhar, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases at Oregon Health and Science University, spoke about this data at ACR 2023.

“Ankylosing spondylitis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease affecting the spine,” Deodhar said. “...What I presented in the ACR 2023 annual convergence meeting was the extension up to 5 years of this phase 2 study, it's called BE AGILE on bimekizumab. And so the study design originally, was a 12-week, double blind, placebo controlled study with various doses of bimekizumab, that was for the first 12 weeks. Between week 12 to week 48, it was dose blind, so patients were either on 160 milligram or 320 milligram. And between week 48, which is 1 year, up to five years, this study was extended.”

Deodhar noted that he had presented the data found in the open label extension of BE AGILE.

“So, generally, when we are looking at 5-year, longitudinal studies on a new compound, what is more interesting for clinicians is the safety, to see whether the drug is really safe for the long ter, because 12 weeks and 48 weeks may or may not tell you much about the safety,” Deodhar said. “...The safety up to week 256 for exposure to bimekizumab in patients with active ankylosing spondylitis showed that there were no new safety signals. We are aware that the IL-17 cytokine is important in our daily life for prevention of fungal infections, especially candida infections.”

To find out more on this data presented at ACR 2023, view the full interview segment above.

The quotes contained in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.