Efficacy and safety of Hizentra® in patients with primary immunodeficiency after a dose-equivalent switch from intravenous or subcutaneous replacement therapy

A prospective, open-label, multicenter, single-arm, Phase III study evaluated the efficacy and safety of Hizentra®, a 20% human IgG for subcutaneous administration, in 51 primary immunodeficiency patients over 40 weeks. Patients previously on intravenous or subcutaneous IgG were switched to weekly subcutaneous infusions of Hizentra® at doses equivalent to their previous treatment. IgG levels achieved with Hizentra® were similar to pre-study levels with subcutaneous, and higher by 17.7% than pre-study levels with intravenous IgG. No serious bacterial infections were reported in the efficacy period. The rate of all infections was 5.18/year/patient, the rates of days missed from work/school, and days spent in hospital were 8.00/year/patient and 3.48/year/patient, respectively. Local reactions (rate 0.060/infusion) were mostly mild (87.3%). No serious, Hizentra®-related adverse events were reported. Individual median infusion durations ranged between 1.14 and 1.27 h. Hizentra® maintained or improved serum IgG levels without dose increases and effectively protected patients against infections.

Research highlights► We evaluated efficacy and safety of Hizentra® in primary immunodeficiency patients. ► Patients received weekly SCIG infusions at doses equivalent to previous treatment. ► IgG levels were maintained or increased with treatment. ► The annualized rate of all infections was 5.18 per patient. ► No serious treatment-related adverse events were reported.