UCB has announced new three-year data for bimekizumab in moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), with findings presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) 2026 Congress in Vienna, Austria. The data indicate higher rates of complete resolution of inflammatory lesions among patients receiving bimekizumab treatment earlier, while biologic-naïve patients showed improved outcomes for draining tunnels. At three years, 47.4% of patients with the shortest duration since diagnosis achieved IHS4-100, compared with 33.3% of those with the longest duration since diagnosis. Among biologic-naïve patients, 67.3% achieved complete draining tunnel resolution at three years, compared with 47.7% of biologic-experienced patients. At one year, 30.7% of patients receiving bimekizumab were free of all tunnels, compared with 14.5% at baseline.
“Active inflammatory tunnels in HS are often associated with considerable pain, impact on quality of life and irreversible structural damage,” said Professor Amit Garg, Founding Chair Department of Dermatology, Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell, New York, US. “The new data for bimekizumab at EADV show not only a greater impact on draining tunnels when used earlier, but also provide the first evidence of a HS treatment reducing the number of total tunnels – suggesting a potential impact of bimekizumab on HS disease progression.” In the BE HEARD trials, patients in the lowest disease-duration quartile had IHS4-55/75/90/100 response rates of 89.7%, 79.4%, 62.9% and 47.4%, respectively, at three years. The corresponding rates in the highest disease-duration quartile were 91.4%, 70.4%, 53.1% and 33.3%. The analysis was a post-hoc analysis of the BE HEARD trials. Bimekizumab is the first and only approved medicine designed to selectively inhibit interleukin 17F (IL-17F) in addition to interleukin 17A (IL-17A).
Among participants in BE HEARD I&II who entered BE HEARD EXT, mean draining tunnel count among biologic-naïve patients declined from 3.3 at baseline to 0.8 at three years, while the mean for biologic-experienced patients decreased from 5.6 to 1.3. At one year, complete resolution of draining tunnels was achieved by 66.7%, 50.8% and 36.8% of biologic-naïve patients with 1–2, 3–5 and >5 draining tunnels at baseline, respectively; the corresponding figures for biologic-experienced patients were 50.0%, 37.0% and 14.3%. At three years, the proportions were 78.8%, 69.1% and 48.3% for biologic-naïve patients and 80.0%, 42.1% and 35.5% for biologic-experienced patients. For total tunnels, 30.7% of 613 patients who completed Year 1 achieved TT=0, compared with 14.5% of 868 patients at baseline. The proportion achieving DT=0 increased from 27.0% at baseline to 56.6% at one year. The long-term bimekizumab treatment data also showed sustained quality-of-life improvements. The mean DLQI total score fell from 11.0 at baseline to 4.5 at three years, while 38.1% of patients achieved DLQI 0/1 and 71.7% achieved DLQI 0–5. The proportion with a HiSQOL total score of ≤14 increased from 24.1% at baseline to 76.4% at three years.
Across BE HEARD I&II and BE HEARD EXT, 995 patients received at least one bimekizumab dose over three years, representing 2,118.6 patient-years of exposure. The EAIR for any TEAE was 243.3 per 100 PY; the most common TEAEs were hidradenitis, corona virus infections and oral candidiasis, with incidence rates of 19.6, 14.1 and 9.3 per 100 PY, respectively. The EAIR for fungal infections was 22.4 per 100 PY, including an EAIR for Candida infections of 13.5 per 100 PY. UCB said the three-year data showed bimekizumab was generally well tolerated, with no new safety signals observed. The HS data were among UCB’s nine HS-focused abstracts at EADV 2026, while the company presented a total of 23 abstracts across its portfolio.
