Mallinckrodt plc announces findings from large retrospective study of acthar® gel

Mallinckrodt plc announced findings from a large retrospective study of acthar® gel (repository corticotropin injection) in the treatment of the respiratory disease symptomatic sarcoidosis that assessed patient characteristics, treatment patterns, concomitant medication use and physicians' assessments of treatment response. the study examined medical records from 302 patients with advanced symptomatic sarcoidosis, the majority of whom had comorbidities and had previously been treated with corticosteroids. the analysis showed that the use of acthar gel was associated with improved overall health status in 95% of patients as reported by physicians' assessments, with more than half of patients (54%) seeing improvements in two or more symptoms. in addition, there was an association observed between the use of acthar gel therapy and reduced overall use of other medications. study methods: patients were required to have completed an individualized course of acthar gel therapy or received acthar gel for =6 months at the time of data collection. records were analyzed from 98 physicians in a range of specialties, including pulmonology, rheumatology, primary care, dermatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology and neurology. 64% of patients had chest imaging and biopsy-confirmed stage 3 or 4 sarcoidosis and 30% had been hospitalized for sarcoidosis during the previous year; all patients had evidence of pulmonary involvement; 42% had involvement of one extrapulmonary organ and 34% had involvement in multiple extrapulmonary organs, most commonly the skin (28%), joints (25%), heart (22%) and eyes (22%); patients' symptoms included mild-to-moderate shortness of breath, fatigue, bone and joint pain, wheezing/coughing and abnormal heartbeat prior to treatment with acthar gel; 76% of patients reported 1 or more comorbidities; 24% had no comorbid conditions; the study examined concurrent medication use before, during and after acthar gel therapy. 86% of patients had received other treatments in the three months prior to receiving acthar gel and concurrent medications used included oral corticosteroids, biologics, immunosuppressants and antimalarial agents. additional observations: the analysis found that patients had varied and individualized dosing regimens. the mean duration of acthar gel treatment was 32.5 weeks, with 61.6% of patients continuing treatment for =6 months. use of acthar gel was associated with a reduction in the use of other medications; acthar gel was also associated with an overall decrease in use of corticosteroids from 61.3% during the three months before acthar gel initiation to 12.9% three months after the start of acthar gel therapy. the analysis also showed an association between acthar gel treatment and a decrease in the mean daily dose of corticosteroids from 18.2 mg to 9.9 mg.
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