Bimekizumab Provides Long-Term Psoriasis Skin Clearance

Bruce Strober, MD, PhD

New long-term data on bimekizumab confirmed that over 80% of all patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who achieved complete skin clearance at week 16 maintained the response through 2 years of continued treatment.

Clinical responses such as PASI 100 and absolute PASI, and PASI ≤2 were maintained through week 96 with the biologic in patients with psoriasis, and no new safety signals were identified.

The new findings were presented at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) 2022 Annual Meeting in Boston, and consisted of pooled data from the BE VIVID, BE READY, and BE SURE phase 3 trials, as well as phase 3b of the BE RADIANT trial and an open-label extension (OLE) trial.

Throughout these trials, the efficacy of bimekizumab were evaluated against placebo as well as ustekinumab and adalimumab.

Regarding the OLE trial, patients who were PASI-90 non-responders with secukinumab at week 48 achieved improved clinical responses following a transition to bimekizumab, and a total of 1362 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis achieved PASI 100 by week 16.

"Long-term complete skin clearance is an important goal for people with psoriasis, and the new 96-week data from the open-label extension period of the BE RADIANT study offer fresh insights on the sustained response and clinical potential of bimekizumab in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis," said Bruce Strober, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor, Department of Dermatology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, U.S., and Central Connecticut Dermatology Research, Cromwell, CT, US. "In addition, the improved clinical responses seen in patients who switched to bimekizumab after 48 weeks of treatment with secukinumab offer further new insights that should help to inform future clinical practice."

The efficacy and safety of bimekizumab have yet to be established for any indications in the US. However, it is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of psoriasis in adults.

In an interview on pending drug approvals for psoriasis and other skin diseases, Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, anticipated an FDA approval of the biologic in the near future.

“The next biologic we'll see for psoriasis is bimekizumab,” said Raj Chovatiya . “The data looks to work quickly, it looks to be efficacious, and largely safety data seems to be pretty good all around. So, we're seeing a lot more excitement in psoriasis than we were expecting, even decades after we saw our first biologic.”