New Therapies for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria Expand Options Beyond Anti-IgE Care

Discussions at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting highlighted a rapidly evolving treatment landscape for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), with new targeted therapies expanding options beyond traditional antihistamines and anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) approaches.

In this exclusive MedPage Today video, Gil Yosipovitch, MD, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, reflects on the past year of approvals and what they mean for dermatologists taking a more central role in managing CSU.

Following is a transcript of his remarks:

So big, major advances have occurred in the last year with approval of two drugs that target the neuroimmune system and mast cells.

One that we are all familiar [with] as dermatologists because it’s been in the market for the last 10 years is dupilumab (Dupixent). It is a biologic injectable targeting the IL [interleukin]-4 receptor and this cascade affects the neuroimmune aspect of chronic urticaria.

And second is a drug that targets the mast cell that is an oral medication, remibrutinib (Rhapsido), which is a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase [inhibitor]. And both of them are very effective for different phenotypes of chronic spontaneous urticaria.

These drugs have a major change for advancing our treatment. We had in the last 14 years a drug omalizumab (Xolair), which targets IgE, but it had limitation because it didn’t work for all types of chronic spontaneous urticaria. So the field is really advanced and dermatologists who were not treating chronic urticaria for a while should now take control of it.