Nemolizumab (Mitchga) is gearing up to be a potential new treatment for prurigo nodularis, with further phase 3 data supporting its efficacy and safety reported this month at the annual meeting of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
In the OLYMPIA 1 study, clinically significant improvements in both itch and skin lesions were seen after 16 weeks of treatment with nemolizumab compared with placebo (P < .0001).
Indeed, among the 286 patients who participated in the trial (190 on nemolizumab and 96 on placebo), 58.4% of those treated with nemolizumab and 16.7% of those who received placebo had an improvement of 4 points or more in the weekly average peak pruritus numeric rating scale (PP-NRS) at week 16 (P < .0001).
Skin lesions were assessed using an investigators general assessment (IGA) score, where IGA success was defined as a score of 0/1 indicating clear or almost clear skin or where there had been at least a 2-point change from baseline values. Over a quarter (26.3%) of nemolizumab-treated patients met these criteria vs 7.3% for those on placebo (P = .0001).
"These results confirm the results of the OLYMPIA 2 study, the other phase 3 study, and now I hope you understand why we are so excited," lead investigator Sonja Ständer, MD, of the Center for Chronic Pruritus, at University Hospital Münster, Germany, said at the meeting, where she presented the data.
