Phase III trials indicate that tozorakimab effectively reduces COPD exacerbations and shows a favourable safety profile, offering potential for improved disease management.
Positive top-line findings from the Phase III OBERON and TITANIA trials have shown that tozorakimab significantly reduced the annualised rate of moderate-to-severe exacerbations in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease compared to placebo. The benefit was observed in the primary study population of former smokers as well as in the broader patient group, which included both current and former smokers across all blood eosinophil levels and varying degrees of lung function impairment. The treatment was generally well tolerated and demonstrated a favourable safety profile.
Tozorakimab is a potential first-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets interleukin-33 (IL-33), uniquely inhibiting both its reduced and oxidised forms. This mechanism offers the potential to reduce inflammation and interrupt the cycle of mucus dysfunction associated with disease progression. In the OBERON and TITANIA studies, the therapy was evaluated in patients who continued to experience exacerbations despite receiving standard inhaled treatments. Participants were administered 300 mg of tozorakimab or placebo every four weeks in addition to their existing therapy.
Also Read: Roche inaugurates new research home for the Institute of Human Biology
COPD affects nearly 400 million people worldwide and remains a progressive condition and the third leading cause of death globally. Despite access to standard inhaled treatments, more than half of patients continue to experience exacerbations, increasing their risk of cardiopulmonary complications and mortality.
Frank Sciurba, MD, FCCP, Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Chief Investigator of LUNA programme, said: “These trial results suggest that targeting the IL-33 pathway with tozorakimab delivers meaningful clinical benefit in a trial representing a broad COPD population, independent of smoking status and eosinophilic levels. COPD has long been a difficult-to-treat disease with inherent heterogeneity and significant unmet need, with up to half of patients worldwide at risk of exacerbations, hospitalisations, cardiopulmonary events, and death, underscoring the importance of these results for advancing COPD science.”
Click here to join our WhatsApp channel here
Sharon Barr, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said: “Today’s tozorakimab results deliver the first two confirmatory Phase III trials for an IL-33 biologic, which is a major scientific advancement in COPD, the world’s third leading cause of death. Tozorakimab works in a fundamentally different way from other biologics, inhibiting the signalling of the reduced and oxidised forms of IL-33 to both decrease inflammation and disrupt the cycle of mucus dysfunction that are key disease drivers in COPD.”
