Roche’s he­mo­phil­ia drug slash­es bleed­ing rate, boost­ing block­buster pro­jec­tions — but doubts on safe­ty linger

Roche served up an­oth­er por­tion of late-stage da­ta on its he­mo­phil­ia drug emi­cizum­ab (ACE910), un­der­scor­ing why an­a­lysts be­lieve the Swiss phar­ma gi­ant has an­oth­er block­buster drug on its hands.

Prep­ping for an up­com­ing sci­ence con­fer­ence, in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­port­ed that 62.9% of the he­mo­phil­ia A pa­tients who had de­vel­oped in­hibitors to stan­dard ther­a­pies and were on their drug had ze­ro bleed­ing episodes at 31 weeks, com­pared to on­ly 5.6% of pa­tients on by­pass­ing agents. The pa­tients saw bleed­ing rates slashed for all kinds of bleeds re­viewed, from all bleeds to joint bleeds, with a clear win on a qual­i­ty of life mea­sure­ment as well. And in a small sub­set of pa­tients pro­vid­ed a pre­emp­tive by­pass­ing agent and then emi­cizum­ab, the risk of bleed­ing dropped 79%.

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