EGRIFTA SIDE EFFECTS

SIDE EFFECTS

The following important adverse reactions are also described elsewhere in the labeling:

• Increased risk of neoplasms
• Elevated IGF-1 levels
• Fluid retention
• Glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus
• Hypersensitivity reactions
• Injection site reactions

Clinical Trial Experience

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.

The safety of EGRIFTA SV (2 mg/vial formulation) has been established based on clinical trials conducted with EGRIFTA (1 mg/vial formulation). Adverse reactions for the 1.4 mg dose (2 mg/vial formulation) of EGRIFTA SV are expected to be similar to those observed with the 2 mg dose (1 mg/vial formulation) of EGRIFTA.

Seven hundred and forty (740) HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy and excess abdominal fat were treated with EGRIFTA in clinical trials; of these, 543 received EGRIFTA during the initial 26-week placebo-controlled phase.

The most commonly reported adverse reactions were hypersensitivity reactions (e.g., rash, urticaria), edema-related reactions (e.g., arthralgia, extremity pain, peripheral edema, and carpal tunnel syndrome), hyperglycemia, and injection site reactions (injection site erythema, pruritus, pain, urticaria, irritation, swelling, and hemorrhage).

Adverse reactions that occurred more frequently with EGRIFTA relative to placebo and had an incidence ≥1% during the first 26 weeks across all studies are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Adverse Reactions Reported in ≥ 1% and More Frequent in EGRIFTA–treated than Placebo Patients during the 26-Week Phase (Combined Studies)

In the EGRIFTA clinical trials, mean baseline HbA_1c was 5.3% among patients in both the EGRIFTA and placebo groups. Patients receiving EGRIFTA had an increased risk of developing diabetes (HbA_1c level ≥ 6.5%) compared with placebo (5% vs. 1%), with a hazard ratio of 3.3 (CI 1.4, 9.6).

Immunogenicity

As with all therapeutic proteins and peptides, there is a potential for development of anti-EGRIFTA antibodies. The observed incidence of antibody positivity in an assay is highly dependent on several factors, including assay sensitivity and specificity, methodology, sample handling, timing of sample collection, concomitant medication and underlying disease. For these reasons, comparison of the incidence of antibodies to EGRIFTA with the incidence of antibodies to other products may be misleading.

In the clinical trials with the EGRIFTA 1 mg/vial formulation, anti-tesamorelin IgG antibodies were detected in 50% of patients who received EGRIFTA for 26 weeks and 47% of patients who received EGRIFTA for 52 weeks. In the subset of patients with hypersensitivity reactions, anti-tesamorelin IgG antibodies were detected in 85%. Cross-reactivity to endogenous growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) was observed in approximately 60% of patients who developed anti-tesamorelin antibodies. Patients with and without anti-tesamorelin IgG antibodies had similar mean reductions in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and IGF-1 response. In a group of patients who had antibodies to tesamorelin after 26 weeks of treatment (56%) and were re-assessed 6 months later, after stopping EGRIFTA treatment, 18% were still antibody positive.

Neutralizing antibodies to tesamorelin and human GHRH (hGHRH) were detected in vitro at Week 52 in 10% and 5% of EGRIFTA-treated patients, respectively. Changes in VAT and IGF-1 levels in patients with or without in vitro neutralizing antibodies were comparable.