TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with hereditary angioedema, ecallantide -- a novel plasma kallikrein inhibitor -- may be an effective treatment for acute attacks, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, held from Nov. 5 to 10 in Miami Beach, Fla.
In two Phase 3 trials from the EDEMA Development Program, Marc A. Riedl, M.D., of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, and colleagues randomly assigned 143 patients to receive either ecallantide or placebo.
The researchers found that median time to onset of symptom improvement was significantly shorter for ecallantide than placebo (67 versus 105 minutes), and that a significantly higher number of ecallantide-treated patients experienced symptom improvement within four hours of dosing (73 versus 58 percent).
"Ecallantide achieved rapid and sustained relief of symptoms associated with an acute attack of hereditary angioedema," the authors conclude.
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