Dupilumab: Potentially Revolutionize The Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis

Discussing whether dupilumab could help children with atopic dermatitis, Bola Akinlade, MD, MBA, explained that his team completed a phase 2 trial in pediatric patients who were given dupilumab in an open label fashion.

Patients were treated with single and multiple doses of 4 weekly injections of dupilumab. The team was able to get early efficacy and safety read outs from the study. However, they will be embarking on a larger phase 3 trial later this year in several groups of pediatric patients, as that's the population where atopic dermatitis is more prevalent.

If dupilumab is approved, Akinlade believes it would be revolutionary for patients who have moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, since there hasn't been an approved systemic treatment for the condition - patients have been resorting to corticosteroids that aren't approved for long-term treatment.

"Not only has it shown efficacy in atopic dermatitis, but dupilumab also has shown efficacy in related atopic dermatitis conditions such as asthma and nasal polyps," said Akinlade.