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Oral ulcerative colitis drug Zeposia is actively prescribed
by Eo, Yun-Ho Feb 06, 2024 06:10am
Prescription of new oral ulcerative colitis drug Zeposia is being actively promoted in general hospitals in Korea. According to industry sources, BMS Korea’s ‘Zeposia Cap (ozanimod)’ has passed drug committee (DC) reviews of major tertiary hospitals in Korea including Samsung Medical Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul Asan Medical Center, as well as medical institutions including Yeungnam University Hospital, Wonkwang University Hospital, Wonju Severance Hospital, Chonnam National University Hospital, Chosun University Hospital, and Hanyang University Guri Hospital. The drug has been expanding its prescription area after receiving insurance reimbursement in January this year. Zeposia, which is taken once daily orally, was approved in February last year to treat moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis in patients who respond adequately to existing treatment or biological agents including corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, etc., or have no response, or have resistance The company applied for reimbursement after approval and passed the Drug Reimbursement Evaluation Committee in August of the same year and was listed for reimbursement this year. Zeposia is a sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator used to suppress inflammation by preventing self-reactive lymphocytes from moving to the stomach in ulcerative colitis where immunomodulatory abnormalities are observed. It confirmed the effect of its new mechanism of action in the True North study, which was conducted on adult patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis. In the study, when evaluating the efficacy of once-daily Zeposia 0.92mg for 10 weeks as induction therapy, 18.4% of ulcerative colitis patients that received Zeposia reached clinical remission at the 10-week mark, which was significantly higher than the 6.8% of patients on placebo. 47.8% of the patients in the Zeposia arm achieved clinical response, which was significantly higher than that of the placebo arm (25.9%). When observing patients who achieved clinical response on Zeposia induction therapy through week 52, at week 52, 37% of patients maintained remission at the 52-week mark of treatment, which was significantly higher compared with 18.5% of those who received placebo. Clinical response was also higher in the Zeposia group than in the placebo group. Tae Il Kim, President of the Korean Association for the Study of Intestinal Diseases (Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Severance Hospital), said, “As ulcerative colitis is a disease that fluctuates between remission and exacerbation and requires long-term treatment, the more treatment options available, the easier it is to tailor a treatment strategy for each patient,” Kim added, "The addition of Zeposia, a novel mechanism of action, is significant because it gives patients another good treatment option to choose from. The advantages of a once-daily oral drug can be very beneficial for patients who are often burdened by the time, cost, and spatial requirements of injectable therapies due to the long-term nature of the disease."