SAN DIEGO – A topical anticholinergic drug, glycopyrronium tosylate, was as safe and effective for treating hyperhidrosis in children 9-16 years old as it was in adults in two phase 3 trials that included 25 treated children, raising the prospect it could become the first drug to gain Food and Drug Administration approval for treating pediatric hyperhidrosis.
“Topical glycopyrronium tosylate treatment may provide a much needed treatment option for those with primary axillary hyperhidrosis, including pediatric patients,” Adelaide A. Hebert, MD , said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Mitchel L. Zoler/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Adelaide A. Hebert
The data she reported from a post hoc analysis included 25 children. 9-16 years old, who received a daily, topical application of glycopyrronium tosylate to their underarms for 4 weeks and 19 children treated with vehicle only. The children were enrolled in either of a pair of phase 3 pivotal trials that together randomized 697 patients. In November 2017, Dermira, the company developing this drug, submitted an application to the FDA for marketing approval of the agent for adults and children at least 9 years old. A statement from the company said an FDA decision is expected by mid-2018.
Getting approval from the FDA for an effective pediatric hyperhidrosis treatment would be an important advance because nothing now exists in that space, said Dr. Hebert, professor of dermatology and pediatrics and director of pediatric dermatology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston.
Based on past FDA actions, safety data from 25 children should be adequate to support pediatric labeling, she said in an interview, though she added that confirmatory safety data from a phase 4 study in children would be a welcome future addition. Hyperhydrosis in adolescents is “underappreciated, underdiagnosed, and is very impactful,” and currently has limited treatment options that are readily available for children, especially effective options for more severe hyperhidrosis.
The pediatric data came from the phase 3, randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled ATMOS-1 (DRM04 in Subjects With Axillary Hyperhidrosis) trial. The trial ran at several U.S. and German centers, although only the U.S. centers enrolled pediatric patients.
The two trials enrolled patients with “intolerable or barely tolerable” primary, axillary hyperhidrosis of at least 6 months' duration. After 4 weeks, patients treated with glycopyrronium tosylate had improvements in their daily diary account of axillary sweating and in sweat production. Dr. Hebert and her associates reported overall results from the two trials at various prior dermatology meetings, and the company reported some of the results in a press release , but the results have not yet been published in a journal.
The new, pediatric analysis that Dr. Hebert reported showed that the responder rate based on a 4 point or greater improvement in daily sweat diary assessments occurred in 60% of the actively treated children and in 13% of the controls. A 50% or greater reduction in sweat production occurred in 80% of the treated children and in 55% of controls. Quality of life, measured using the Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index improved by an average of 8 points among the treated children, compared with an average 2-point improvement among the controls. This level of improvement among the glycopyrronium-treated patients would have been enough to move patients from the moderate-effect category at baseline to a no- or small-effect category.