Topically applied beremagene geperpavec (B-VEC) was more likely to promote complete wound healing at 3 and 6 months vs placebo in patients with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, according to findings published by Guide et al in The New England Journal of Medicine. In a phase III trial, 31 patients had a wound pair selected—so one of their wounds was randomly assigned to be treated with B-VEC, while the other wound was treated with a placebo, over the course of 6.5 months. Wounds treated with B-VEC, a herpes simplex virus type 1–based gene therapy, had a complete wound healing rate at 6 months of 67%, compared to 22% of wounds treated with a placebo; at 3 months, complete wound healing was seen in 71% of wounds treated with B-VEC vs 20% of wounds treated with placebo. Additionally, there was an improvement from baseline in pain during wound dressing changes for wounds treated with B-VEC. Lastly, most adverse events—which occurred in 58% of patients—were either classified as mild or moderate; pruritus, chills, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma were the most common adverse events, each of which occurred in three patients.
April 30, 2023