Efficacy and safety of a new intravenous immunoglobulin (Panzyga(®)) in chronic immune thrombocytopenia

OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) 10% (Panzyga(®)), a novel human normal IVIG 10%, in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). BACKGROUND: First‐line treatment options in ITP include IVIGs. METHODS: In this prospective, open‐label, non‐controlled, multicentre, phase III study, patients received a daily dose of IVIG 10% (1 g kg(−1) body weight) for two consecutive days. The primary end point was clinical response rate; secondary end points included alternate response definitions, time to response, response duration, platelet counts, regression of bleeding and safety. RESULTS: Forty patients were enrolled (57·5% male, mean age 36·7 years); the full analysis set comprised 36 patients. A clinical response was seen for 29 of 36 patients (80·6%). Median time to response and response duration was 2 days and 14 days, respectively. IVIG 10% was well tolerated at a maximum infusion rate of 8 mg (kg min)(−1) in all but one patient; adverse events were mainly mild to moderate in severity, and the most frequent was headache (42·5%). CONCLUSION: IVIG 10% is well tolerated even at a high infusion speed and induces a rapid platelet count increase, thus decreasing the bleeding rate and the severity of bleeding events. Trial registry: http://ClinicalTrials.gov record: NCT01349790.