Incyte’s JAK inhibitor ointment Opzelura performed well in the treatment of moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).
JAK: Janus kinase, HS: hidradenitis suppurativa
How effective is Opzelura for HS? (1/2)
The pus and inflamed nodules produced by HS are very painful and can lead to irreversible tissue destruction and scarring.
Phase 2 clinical data showed that twice-daily Opzelura significantly reduced pus and inflammatory nodules (AN) after week 16 compared to placebo.
AN: Abscesses and inflammatory nodule
How effective is Opzelura for HS? (2/2)
79%使用Opzelura的受試者減少整體AN的數目超越50% and more than 20% achieved complete skin cleanliness. Even most patients achieve a clinical response to HS.
Clinical response to HS: Reduction in the number of ANs by at least 50% without an increase in pus or draining fistulas
The company’s senior management said
Jim Lee, Vice President of Inflammation & Autoimmunity at Incyte, said, “Despite the daily suffering of patients and the inadequacy of standard therapies until now, today’s Opzelura data provides a significant advance in HS research to provide patients with an effective treatment option to better manage the disease.”
Safety data is acceptable at this time
Two patients stopped participating in the clinical trial, but there were no treatment-related serious adverse events.
What is Opzelura?
Opzelura is an ointment version of Incyte’s star drug, Jakafi. Opzelura was approved for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in 2021 and for the treatment of vitiligo the following year.
Opzelura is currently the only approved JAK inhibitor cream in the United States, but Leo Pharmaceutical’s delgocitinib is gearing up to join the fray, and recently announced the results of a phase III clinical trial for chronic hand eczema, which is quite good.
Does the Incyte have any other weapons?
The weapon under development is oral povorcitinib, which has been shown to significantly improve disease severity and itchiness in patients with prurigo nodosum (NP) in Phase II clinical trials.
NP: Nodularis prurigo
Opzelura’s future plans and outlook
Opzulura generated $338 million in sales in 2023 and was hailed by the company’s executives as the best drug on the market in the skin field in recent times, and plans to evaluate the efficacy of prurigo nodosa (NP) in the future.
