Infections in Children Aged 6 Months to 5 Years Treated with Dupilumab in a Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial of Moderate-to-Severe Atopic Dermatitis.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), particularly infants and young children, are at greater risk of developing skin infections. In this study, we assessed infection rates in AD patients aged 6 months to 5 years treated with dupilumab. METHODS: In LIBERTY AD PRESCHOOL, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III clinical trial, children aged 6 months to 5 years with moderate-to-severe AD were randomized 11 to subcutaneous dupilumab or placebo, with concomitant low-potency topical corticosteroids, every 4 weeks for 16 weeks. Exposure-adjusted infection rates were used to compare treatment groups. RESULTS: The analysis included 162 patients, of whom 83 received dupilumab and 79 received placebo. Total infection rates were not significantly different between the dupilumab and placebo groups (rate ratio [RR] 0.75, 95% CI 0.48-1.19; p = 0.223). Non-herpetic adjudicated skin infections and bacterial infections were significantly less frequent with dupilumab versus placebo (non-herpetic skin infections RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.21-0.99; p = 0.047; bacterial infections RR 0.09, 95% CI 0.01-0.67; p = 0.019), and the number of patients using systemic anti-infective medication was significantly lower in the dupilumab group (RR 0.52, 95% CI 0.30-0.89; p = 0.019). There were no significant differences in the number of herpetic infections between the dupilumab and placebo groups (RR 1.17, 95% CI 0.31-4.35; p = 0.817). The number of patients with two or more infection events was significantly higher in the placebo group (RR 0.29, 95% CI 0.12-0.68; p = 0.004), and no severe or serious infections (including eczema herpeticum) were observed among patients receiving dupilumab. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that dupilumab treatment in infants and children younger than 6 years with AD does not increase overall risk of infections and is associated with a reduced risk of bacterial and non-herpetic skin infections compared with placebo, resulting in a reduced need for anti-infective medication. TRIAL REGISTRATION The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov with ID number NCT03346434 on November 17, 2017. INFOGRAPHIC.

Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic disease of the skin, are at greater risk of developing skin infections, particularly infants and young children. Several medications for AD may weaken the patient's immune system, further increasing the risk of infections. Dupilumab is a recently developed drug for AD that should not interfere with the patient's immune defenses against bacterial, viral, or fungal infections. In this study, we evaluated the effect of dupilumab on infections in children aged 6 months to 5 years with moderate-to-severe AD. Patients received 200 or 300 mg of dupilumab (depending on the child's weight) or placebo, together with ointments containing mild steroids, every 4 weeks for 16 weeks. At the end of treatment, total infections were not significantly different between patients receiving dupilumab and placebo. Furthermore, patients receiving dupilumab experienced significantly less bacterial and non-herpetic skin infections and used significantly less anti-infective medication compared with patients receiving placebo. Herpetic infections were also not significantly different between dupilumab- and placebo-treated patients. Finally, significantly more patients in the placebo group experienced two or more infections. This study demonstrates that dupilumab does not increase the risk of infections in infants and young children with AD and can decrease the use of anti-infective medication.