Kathleen Hawker, MD

“The other part that I think is very important when we go from 96 weeks up to 144 weeks is that the efficacy continued as well. You see that patients who had been on placebo had increasing relapse rates, whereas people on satralizumab continued to be very, very stable over that period of time.”

In late May, a set of studies were presented at the 6th Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) showing the clinical safety of satralizumab in the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Ultimately, the pooled results suggest that in a broad patient population—including adolescent patients&mdash;the agent is well tolerated.

That data, pooled from the double-blind periods of the SAkuraStar and SAkuraSky studies, showed that the rates of adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs were comparable between satralizumab and placebo groups (serious AEs: 15.0 vs 18.0 events/100 patient-years, respectively), as a monotherapy or in combination with baseline therapy. The most common AEs in both treatment groups were urinary tract infection and upper respiratory tract infection, with no deaths or anaphylactic reactions reported.

To find out more about the interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor-targeted investigational humanized monoclonal antibody, 

 spoke with Kathleen Hawker, MD, group medical director, Neuroscience, Genentech. Hawker offered her perspective on the data and what clinicians can take away from it.

New Longer-Term Data Reinforce Safety of Genentech’s Satralizumab in Adults and Adolescents With Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) [news release]. South San Francisco, CA: Genentech; Published May 21, 2020. Accessed June 8, 2020. gene.com/media/press-releases/14853/2020-05-21/new-longer-term-data-reinforce-safety-of

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The group medical director of neuroscience at Genentech spoke to the findings recently presented at the 6th Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Neurology.

Kathleen Hawker, MD

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Kathleen Hawker, MD: Clinical Findings for Satralizumab in Treating NMOSD

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