Lebrikizumab Shows Durable Efficacy Through 4 Years in Atopic Dermatitis

Key Takeaways

• Lebrikizumab demonstrated durable efficacy through up to four years, with high rates of skin clearance and itch control.
• Consistent responses across multiple endpoints reinforce long-term disease control with monthly maintenance dosing.
• Safety remained stable over time, with no new signals observed in the ongoing extension study.

Long-term data from the Phase 3b ADlong study show that lebrikizumab provides sustained skin clearance and itch relief for up to four years in patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD), according to findings presented at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) 2026 Annual Meeting.

Lebrikizumab is a monoclonal antibody targeting IL-13, a central cytokine in type 2 inflammation that contributes to barrier dysfunction, pruritus, and skin thickening in AD. The ongoing open-label extension study evaluated long-term outcomes with once-monthly maintenance dosing.

At up to 4 years of continuous treatment, efficacy outcomes remained high across multiple measures. EASI-75 was achieved by 94% of patients, EASI-90 by 75%, and Investigator’s Global Assessment (IGA) 0/1 by 68%. Clinically meaningful itch control was also sustained, with 78% of patients achieving a Pruritus Numeric Rating Scale score of 4 or less.

Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, emphasized the consistency of these findings across endpoints.

“Sometimes, one metric stands out in a study but the others are less impressive,” Dr. Guttman-Yassky told Practical Dermatology. “You like to see that everything is consistent, and this is what happened here. It is nice to see that your patients will maintain the same data for 4 years. That is very reassuring.”

Most patients (77%) received lebrikizumab as monotherapy, and 80% achieved outcomes without topical corticosteroids. Similar proportions maintained disease control with monthly dosing, supporting reduced treatment burden over time.

“Lebrikizumab can be good for any patient with atapic dermatitis that is moderate-to-severe,” Dr. Guttman-Yassky said. “We can prescribe it either as first line or when people fail another biologic. Similar to psoriasis, atopic dermatitis patients can fail one biologic and then respond to another in the same class. For example, a patient who fails dupiluman may still respond to lebrikizumab.”

Safety findings in the first year of ADlong were consistent with the known profile of IL-13 inhibition. Most adverse events were mild to moderate, with conjunctivitis (6.9%) and injection-site reactions (0.6%) among the most commonly reported treatment-related events.

Dr. Guttman-Yassky noted that long-term durability is a key consideration in chronic disease management.

“It is very reassuring that people do not fall off the wagon over time,” she said.