Bimekizumab efficacy in male and female patients with axial spondyloarthritis: 52-week results from the phase 3 BE MOBILE trials.
Martin Rudwaleit, Sofia Ramiro, Denis Poddubnyy et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
In 30 seconds
This post hoc analysis of two phase 3 randomised trials assessed sex-based differences in bimekizumab response among patients with radiographic or non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. At week 16, male patients generally showed better clinical and patient-reported responses versus placebo than female patients. By week 52, female patients had sustained improvements across these outcomes, although responses remained numerically higher in males. MRI and hs-CRP measures of inflammation fell to similarly low levels in both sexes at week 16 and remained low through week 52, despite baseline differences.
Key findings
- At week 16, male patients typically had better bimekizumab-versus-placebo responses than female patients across disease activity, function and health-related quality-of-life outcomes.
- At week 52, female patients showed longer-term improvements in composite and patient-reported outcomes, while male responses remained numerically higher.
- MRI and hs-CRP inflammation measures reached similarly low levels in both sexes at week 16 and remained low at week 52.
Why it matters
The analysis suggests that clinical response patterns to bimekizumab may differ by sex over time, while objective inflammation improves similarly. Considering both clinical and inflammatory outcomes may help interpret response trajectories in axial spondyloarthritis, without assuming that early differences necessarily predict longer-term outcomes.
What to keep in mind
The sex-based analysis was post hoc, and the abstract provides no quantitative effect estimates for the reported comparisons.