New Long-Term Data on Bimekizumab for Psoriasis with Mark Lebwohl, MD

Patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis treated with bimekizumab-bkzx (Bimzelx) rapidly achieved and later maintained notably high clinical and health-related quality-of-life response rates through 4 years of treatment, according to new findings.¹

These findings were presented as late-breaking data at the 2024 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in San Diego. The investigators noted several long-term findings on bimekizumab that demonstrated its efficacy, such as the observation that 6 out of 10 individuals treated ended up with complete skin clearance at the 4-year mark.

In a new interview at AAD with HCPLive, Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, spoke on his team’s late-breaking data regarding the drug’s long-term efficacy and safety. Lebwohl is known for his contributions to psoriasis research and his role as Dean of Clinical Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“Bimekizumab, of course, is the newest approved biologic in the United States for psoriasis,” Lebwohl said. “It is different from some of the other biologics we have in that we have several that block IL-17A and we have one that blocks the IL-17 receptors…While IL-17A is certainly one of the most active cytokines to cause psoriasis, IL-17F is more prevalent in the skin lesions of psoriasis. And it seems that blocking both gives us superior efficacy.”

Lebwohl described the phase 3/3b studies from which these findings were drawn, with the 52-week BE VIVID study, the 56-week BE READY and BE SURE trials, and the open-label extensions included. The open-label extension (OLE) studies BE BRIGHT and BE RADIANT were explored by Lebwohl as well.

“If you look at the proportion who had prior systemic therapy, it was over 80%, and those who had had prior biologic therapies were over 40%,” Lebwohl added. “So we're looking at a very tough group of patients to treat.”

The research team had found that about 9 out of 10 individuals given bimekizumab who had also achieved PASI90 at the 16-week mark, as well as more than 7 out of 10 who reported complete skin clearance, were shown to have maintained their response to the fourth year.

“If you look at the PASI100 scores, the corresponding numbers of 72.6%, imagine close to 3 quarters of patients in the every 8 week group that achieved PASI100 with not a dot of psoriasis left,” Lebwohl said. “64.7% in the group that responded less well and maintained that every 4 week dosing, maintained a PASI100. So nearly 2 thirds of those who at the 52-week mark weren't doing as well did indeed achieve PASI90.”

Lebwohl also discussed the 4-year safety data, which had demonstrated that treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) had been consistent or decreased as longer exposure to the treatment occurred. There had also been no new safety signals.

For more information on the findings, view the full interview discussion posted above.

The quotes contained here were edited for the purposes of clarity.

References

1. ^{First Presentation of Year 4 BIMZELX® (bimekizumab-bkzx) Data Showed Long-Term Maintenance of Complete Skin Clearance in Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis. UCB. March 9, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-presentation-of-year-4-bimzelx-bimekizumab-bkzx-data-showed-long-term-maintenance-of-complete-skin-clearance-in-moderate-to-severe-plaque-psoriasis-302084576.html. Date accessed: March 10, 2024.}