Roivant and its spinout Priovant said Friday that their immune-modifying drug brepocitinib significantly outperformed placebo in clearing lesions caused by a rare skin disease in a small trial.
In the 31–person study, patients with cutaneous sarcoidosis who received a high dose of the drug improved by an average of 22.3 points on a 165-point scale of disease activity, compared to 0.7 points for patients who received placebo.
The results outperformed the expectations set by executives, who told investors they would be satisfied if the drug outscored placebo by five points.
“The topline of the message I would want to convey is: You could not see better results in the drug,” said Misha Rosenbach, director of the cutaneous sarcoidosis program at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and lead investigator on the study. “If the drug worked half as well and had twice as many side effects, this would still be a landmark study.”
