An observational study on the safety of teprotumumab based on FAERS database

Teprotumumab plays an important role in thyroid eye disease pathogenesis and progression. We intend to mine the adverse event (AE) signals from a relevant database, thereby contributing to the safe use of teprotumumab.

The data obtained from the ASCII data packages in the FAERS database from January 2020 to the second quarter of 2023 were imported into the SAS software (version 9.4) for data cleaning and analysis. Disproportionality analysis was performed using the reporting odds ratio (ROR) in conjunction with the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) omnibus standard method to detect positive signals.

This retrospective observational study relied on adverse drug reactions reported to the FDA through FAERS, which is a standard public system for spontaneous reporting.

Collectively, 2171 AE reports for teprotumumab were collected, among which 108 significant signals were identified involving 17 system organ classes. The SOC of ear and labyrinth disorders included the most AE signals and reports. Muscle spasms, fatigue, headache, nausea, diarrhea, alopecia, blood glucose increased, hypoacusis, tinnitus, and diabetes mellitus were the top ten PTs ranked by the frequency of reporting, meanwhile, the two high-strength signals of thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin increase (ROR 662.89, 95% CI 182.40–2409.19) and gingival recession (ROR 125.13, 95% CI 79.70–196.45) were not documented in the drug instruction. Meanwhile, we found a higher risk of increased blood glucose, deafness, and decreased appetite for male patients, and headache for female patients.

Clinical application of teprotumumab should be closely monitored for ototoxicity, nail abnormalities, and menstrual changes, as well as for AEs not mentioned in the drug instruction, including gingival recession, thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin increase, and so on.