Phase III clinical study of Maruho's nemolizumab for treatment of atopic dermatitis-related itching reached its main endpoint

recently, MaruhoCompany(http://announced that phase III clinical study conducted in Japan to assess the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD, special type of eczema)-related itching has reached its main endpointnemolizumab is a human-derived monoclonal antibody that targets blocking IL-31 receptor A, which is developed by theof the Chinese and foreignPharmaceutical(http://At the end of September 2016, Maruho acquired the right to develop and commercialize nemolizumab for use in the field of skin diseases in the Japanese market under the china and foreign pharmaceutical licensingIL-31 is a cytokine that induces itching and is reported to be associated with the occurrence of itching in patients with asexual dermatitis and dialysisnemolizumab uses ACT-Ig, a proprietary antibody engineering technology from Chinese and foreign pharmaceuticals, that extends the biological half-life of antibodies in the bloodnemolizumab is thought to inhibit the biological activity of IL-31 by competitively blocking the binding of IL-31 to its receptorsThe study enrolled 215 patients over the age of 13 with moderate to severe itchingThe study compared the efficacy and safety of nemolizumab and placebo treatment for 16 weeksresults showed a statistically significant improvement in the nemolizumab treatment group showed statistically significant improvements in the primary endpoint (the rate of change in the score of the itching visual simulation scale (VAS) after 16 weeks of administration) and the secondary endpoint (the rate of change in the ecstasy site and severity index (EASI) scoring rate after 16 weeks of administration) compared to the placebo groupIn addition, nemolizumab showed good tolerance in the studyBased on data from other ongoing clinical studies, Maruho plans to submit a listing application for nemolizumab treatment of atopic dermatitis-related itching to Japanese regulators in the future