Long-Term Benefits of Inebilizumab Revealed in N-MOmentum Analysis: Bruce Cree, MD, PhD, MAS, FAAN

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

“This data is important because it gives us information about long term therapeutic outcomes with inebilizumab versus no treatment. It also gives us a benchmark over what has been the standard of care therapy. It will be empirically based for many years in NMO (neuromyelitis optica) and gives us a sense of the superiority and added benefit of the modern medicine inebilizumab compared to azathioprine. Together, this provides us a wealth of information.”

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is a rare sever autoimmune disease characterized by acute inflammatory attacks afflicting the central nervous system. The FDA-approved treatments for patients with aquaporin-4-IgG-seropositive (AQP4 IgG+) NMOSD include eculizumab (Soliris; Alexion), inebilizumab (Uplizna; Horizon Therapeutics), and satralizumab (Enspryng; Genentech). Inebilizumab’s approval was based on the N-MOmentum trial (NCT02200770), a randomized placebo-controlled trial lasting 6 months.¹ Off label therapies including immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil have been used to treat the disease as well.

At the 2023 MSMilan, the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting, October 11–13, in Milan, Italy, lead author Bruce Cree, MD, PhD, MAS, FAAN, the clinical research director of the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Center, presented efficacy data on a subpopulation of patients from the open-label extension of N-MOmentum, comparing the treatment with azathioprine, immunosuppressants, and placebo. In this study, inebilizumab treatment was associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk of an attack compared with the other commonly used treatments and those with no treatment.¹

At the meeting, Cree sat down in an interview with NeurologyLive® to discuss biomarker progress in NMOSD, clinical management, and silent progression of the neurological disease. He talked about how N-Momentum managed to minimize placebo exposure while assessing the effects of inebilizumab in patients with NMOSD. Also, Cree spoke about the key findings when comparing inebilizumab with a placebo and azathioprine over a 4-year period, as well as explained how ibalizumab's therapeutic benefits improve with each subsequent treatment.

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REFERENCES
1. Cree B, Suero B, Walsh S, et al. Long-Term Comparative Efficacy of Inebilizumab in the AQP4+ Subpopulation from the N-MOmentum Open-Label Extension Versus Azathioprine and Immunosuppressive Therapies and Versus Placebo in Patients with NMOSD. Presented at: 2023 MSMilan; October 11-12; Milan, Italy. Abstract P409.