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Dermbits

UCB Bimz October 2023

What is the safety profile of bimekizumab and what are the most common adverse effects seen so far?

Psoriasis

You know, nature has done an experiment for us in which there are people born defective in IL 17, and they've even. There are even patients born with a mutation in the IL 17 receptor. So they're defective in IL 17. A-B-C-D-E-F. All the IL 17s, including some I added in the. The side effects that we are seeing in IL 17 blockers, including bimikhizumab, are only yeast infections. That is the only common side effect. And primarily it is oral thrush that we are seeing. And it is usually mild to moderate, easily treated, and rarely results in stopping the drug because it's so easily treated. The label for bimikizumab has a couple of other mentions. One of them is suicidal ideation and suicides. Even though there was only one case in the large number of patients in the clinical trials, it still ended up in the package insert. That's probably because of bridalumab having a REMS program for suicide. And of course, bimikishmab does not have a REMS program. It just has a non boxed warning, regular warning, again, because there was just one suicide in all the study patients. The second side effect that kind of peculiarly was mentioned was liver test abnormalities. Psoriasis patients tend to be overweight and tend to drink more than non psoriasis patients, so they naturally have an increase in an elevation in liver function tests often. And it turns out when you compare the data for bimikizumab treated patients to patients treated with other biologics, many of the other biologics have higher frequencies of liver abnormalities than patients treated with bimikizumab. Um, nonetheless, a warning for liver abnormalities was put in the package insert. I'm not sure how warranted that is, but be aware that it is in the package insert in case your patients ask about it.

What is the safety profile of bimekizumab and what are the most common adverse effects seen so far?

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