Clinical efficacy and compliance of dupilumab therapy in adolescent and adult patients with atopic dermatitis in real clinical practice: An analysis of data from a single allergy clinic in Korea

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#Dupilumab (a monoclonal antibody to interleukin-4 receptor alpha) is the first biological agent approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD). We evaluated the clinical efficacy and compliance of dupilumab therapy for AD in real clinical practice. @*Methods@#Medical records of 132 adolescent and adult patients with AD who received at least one dose of dupilumab were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical efficacy of dupilumab was assessed by either changes in eczema area and severity index (EASI) or changes in the requirement of medications from baseline to weeks 16 and 42. Clinical response was determined by the proportion of patients with decreased EASI scores of at least 75% from baseline at week 16 (EASI–75). Clinical remission was defined as a complete withdrawal of all the medications for AD except dupilumab. @*Results@#Dupilumab was administered for 16 weeks (77.3%) and 42 weeks (63.6%) in 132 patients with AD. In patients who received reimbursement from National Healthcare Insurance of Korea (NHIK) for dupilumab therapy, the compliance of dupilumab therapy was 90.2% and 87.8%, and EASI–75 response rate was 92.5% and 100% at weeks 16 and 42, respectively. In patients who received the dupilumab therapy without NHIK reimbursement (self-payment), the compliance of dupilumab therapy was 71.4% and 52.7%, the clinical remission rate was 44.0% and 64.6%, and the median interval of dupilumab therapy was 4 weeks (range, 2–13 weeks) and 5 weeks (2–15 weeks) at weeks 16 and 42, respectively. @*Conclusion@#Dupilumab therapy may be clinically useful in the aspects of efficacy and compliance in patients with AD.