Latest Trial Data on Secukinumab for Hidradenitis Suppurativa

In her last interview with HCPLiveAlexa Kimball, MD, MPH, presented the latest long-term 52-week data found in the SUNSHINE and SUNRISE studies in moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).

Kimball is a dermatologist specializing in complex, immune-mediated skin conditions. She is also a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and a board member at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Kimball first described some of the recent findings her team examined in the two studies of the use of secukinumab (Cosentyx) in HS patients.

“Obviously this is a landmark study for us,” she said. “It is only the second Phase 3 program ever launched in HS and is indeed the largest to date. So our HS journey is not over yet. But we’ve made great strides in the last decade when we started figuring out what therapies we could use.”

The treatment, secukinumab, is an antibody designed to directly inhibit interleukin-17A (IL-17A). IL-17A is a cytokine known to affect plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis inflammation and other diseases.

In the last phase of the study, at 16 weeks, the researchers found that a greater proportion of participants with HS achieved a clinical response to HS after one every 2 treatments with secukinumab compared to placebo.

“So we’re learning a lot,” Kimball said. “There was a fair amount of data suggesting that IL-17 would be helpful in treating HS and it was so great to have definitive data that clearly shows this. And the 52-week data is especially important because a lot of the studies are really looking at weeks 12 and 16. And in the world of HS, that’s a very short period of time.”

Response rates in this phase continued to show improvement beyond the primary endpoint analysis at 16 weeks to over 55% of patients achieving clinical HS response at 52 weeks.

“There was a moment about 10 years ago when a patient with severe HS happened to be referred to me,” Kimball said. “And I had this aha moment in the clinic when I said, ‘You know, all the things that we studied in psoriasis, we have to study in HS.’ The questions are the same, the answers will be different. And that’s really where my journey began, years ago now.”

Other treatment options were considered important as there is only one approved treatment for HS patients with limited long-term efficacy.

For more information, see HCPLive Interview section above.