Effect of marstacimab in young people living with severe hemophilia A or moderate to severe hemophilia B without inhibitors: A plain language summary from the BASIS study

Summary What is this summary about? This summary describes a study that looked at how well the study treatment (marstacimab) works in people living with hemophilia. The summary describes how well marstacimab reduced bleeding episodes in young people (adolescents) 12 to 17 years old. Hemophilia is a condition that causes people to bleed more easily because their blood is unable to clot properly. Clotting is when blood turns from liquid into gel to stop bleeding. Hemophilia is caused by not having enough blood clotting factors, which are proteins found in the blood that help in forming a clot and stop bleeding. People living with hemophilia either don’t make these proteins, have low amounts of these proteins, or their proteins do not work well. There are different types of hemophilia, depending on which clotting factor is affected. For example, people living with hemophilia A lack clotting factor 8, and people living with hemophilia B lack clotting factor 9. Some treatments for hemophilia work by replacing clotting factors. These treatments are called factor replacement therapy, and are given directly into a vein (called intravenous, or IV for short). They are given frequently, sometimes even more than once a week. In some people living with hemophilia, the body develops antibodies called inhibitors that block replacement clotting factors from working properly. Not all people living with hemophilia produce these antibodies – those who don’t are classified as having hemophilia without inhibitors. A different way to treat people living with hemophilia is by using treatment called non-factor replacement therapy. One type of non-factor treatment called marstacimab is given as a regular preventive treatment (called prophylaxis). It works without replacing the missing clotting factors but brings blood clotting and bleeding back to a normal balance. Marstacimab is given once a week as a flat-dose (not based on body weight) injection under the skin (called subcutaneous) using an auto-injector device. This injection is sometimes called a shot and can be easier than injecting directly into a vein. In some cases, marstacimab can be taken less often than clotting factors. Marstacimab offers a new way to treat people living with hemophilia A or B without inhibitors. What were the results of the study? In this study, young people treated with marstacimab for 1 year had on average fewer bleeding episodes than on previous clotting factor replacement treatment. Marstacimab was well tolerated in young people (similar to adults), which means that most side effects that people had were mild to moderate and resolved by the end of the study. What do the results mean? This study showed that a once weekly injection of marstacimab could help reduce bleeding episodes in young people living with hemophilia A or B, without inhibitors.