Kim Kjoller, MD: Comparing Tralokinumab to Other Agents for Atopic Dermatitis

In essence, it’s a little more targeted because it doesn’t touch the IL-4 receptor and you may have some benefits from that downstream. And importantly, it takes IL-13 completely out of the system. -Kim Kjøller, MD, said in a recent interview with HCPLive®.

Along with tralokinumab, other agents like dupilumab can be used for the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.

Dupilumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody that works in a way that it targets the interleukin-4 (IL-4) receptor. By binding there, the cytokine can no longer hit the receptor or the IL-13 receptor to activate it. The biologic was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017 for patients with atopic dermatitis.

Tralokinumab is an investigational biologic that specifically targets the cytokine so the IL-13 does not hit any receptors, which may be important. Speculatively, there are decoy receptors of which the nature is not fully understood by experts. But for tralokinumab to take out the cytokine, it means there will not be any activity through the decoy receptor.

“I think that’s probably the biggest difference between tralokinumab and dupilumab,” he said.