Most Promising New Drugs for Hidradenitis Suppurativa, with Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) can be one of the most challenging skin conditions to manage in the dermatology space. Both medical and surgical management strategies are needed to optimize treatment, and awareness of new therapies can be significantly helpful to health care providers.

Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of medicine for the Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School, spoke with HCPLive at the Maui Derm NP+PA Fall 2024 conference about promising medication options for providers to introduce to patients with HS.

“Bimekizumab we have for psoriasis and we'll have for (hidradenitis suppurativa) very soon,” Chovatiya said. “It’s an IL-17 A and F blocker that has some very exciting data that we've been sitting on for a little while now…Additionally, I talked more about the IL-17 space in the case of nanobodies. There's some data there, both in terms of IL-17 A and F blockade, essentially innovative ways of delivering molecules that are not exactly antibodies, but smaller, therefore they have better penetration.”

Chovatiya highlighted the anti-IL17A biologic drug secukinumab as a recently approved option, noting that other drugs in the pipeline include bimekizumab and izokipeb. His presentation highlighted the fact that anti-IL17 therapies represent the next wave of HS treatments.

“Adalimumab was amazing for all of us, but I think we've known that it isn't the perfect solution for every single patient with HS,” Chovatiya explained. “The disease itself, unfortunately, tends to still be progressive in a lot of patients when you end up starting them on therapy…So really, with the approval of secukinumab, you should, hopefully every year, be seeing something really exciting. If not a therapy getting approved, a phase three data point coming out.”

Chovatiya highlighted data from the SUNSHINE and SUNRISE trials on secukinumab, noting that the led to the approval of the drug by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“What they showed very clearly at a couple of dosing intervals was that there was superiority of secukinumab versus placebo itself,” Chovatiya said. “You know, I always tell folks when I'm talking about data with HS, the ability to clear placebo is actually really hard…Anytime that margin looks narrow or wide, it's hard to know exactly what the true effect size is. But in the case of these phase 3 trials, secukinumab very clearly got to where we needed to in terms of a high score of 50.”

For additional information on these treatment options for HS, view the full interview segment posted above.

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

Chovatiya reports serving as an advisor, consultant, speaker, and/or investigator for AbbVie, Amgen, Apogee Therapeutics, Arcutis, Argenx, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, Beiersdorf, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cara Therapeutics, Dermavant, Eli Lilly and Company, FIDE, Formation Bio, Galderma, Genentech, GSK, Incyte, LEO Pharma, L’Oréal, Nektar Therapeutics, Novartis, Opsidio, Pfizer Inc, Regeneron, RAPT, Sanofi, Sitryx, and UCB.