Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leader in RNA-targeted therapies, announced the publication of positive Phase 2 data for donidalorsen (formerly IONIS-PKK-LRx) in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) available at NEJM.org. Donidalorsen is an investigational antisense medicine Ionis is evaluating for treating patients with hereditary angioedema (HAE). In the Phase 2 study, donidalorsen demonstrated a 90% reduction in angioedema attacks compared with placebo at the 80 mg monthly dose. There was significant improvement in quality of life as assessed by the Angioedema Quality of Life Questionnaire (AE-QoL) in the patients treated with donidalorsen.
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Donidalorsen is designed to reduce the production of prekallikrein, which plays a key role in the activation of inflammatory mediators associated with acute attacks of HAE. Donidalorsen uses Ionis’ advanced LIgand-Conjugated Antisense (LICA) technology platform.
“Positive Phase 2 data published in NEJM, along with data presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting, demonstrate that treatment with donidalorsen reduced attack frequency and disease burden of hereditary angioedema,” said Kenneth Newman, M.D., M.B.A., Ionis‘ vice president of clinical development and leader of the immunology and pulmonology franchise. “The promising findings from this study are particularly encouraging as we continue to advance the Phase 3 clinical study for donidalorsen and underscore our commitment to deliver transformative treatments for patients with unmet therapeutic needs.”
The Phase 2 study is double-blind and placebo-controlled in which patients with hereditary angioedema due to C1-inhibitor deficiency were randomized 2:1 to either 80 mg donidalorsen (n=14) or placebo (n=6) administered subcutaneously every 4 weeks for 16 weeks. The primary endpoint was the number of monthly angioedema attacks between weeks 1 and 17. Secondary endpoints included the time-normalized number of all, and only moderate or severe, angioedema attacks per month between weeks 5 and 17 and quality of life, measured with the AE-QoL. In this study, donidalorsen was safe and well tolerated.
The mean monthly rate of angioedema attacks was 0.23 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.08 to 0.39) and 2.21 (95% CI, 0.58 to 3.85) in patients receiving donidalorsen and placebo, respectively (mean difference, -90%; 95% CI, -76 to -96%; P<0.001). The mean attack rate between Weeks 5 and 17 was 0.07 (95% confidence interval CI, -0.08 to 0.23) and 2.06 (95% CI, 0.41 to 3.72) in patients receiving donidalorsen and placebo, respectively (mean difference, -97%; 95% CI, -69 to –100%).
Patients reported higher overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over 17 weeks with donidalorsen, with a mean change in total score of the AE-QoL of -26.85, compared with -6.15 in the placebo group (P=0.002) where reduction in the score indicates better quality of life. There were improvements observed across all individual domains of the AE-QoL compared with placebo.