
Roivant Announces FDA Approval of LISRAYA™ (brepocitinib) for Adults with Dermatomyositis
On Aug. 27, 2026, Roivant announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LISRAYA™ (brepocitinib) 30 mg for the treatment of adults with dermatomyositis (DM). LISRAYA is a pill taken once daily.
DM is a rare systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness and extensive, painful, and pruritic skin lesions. DM significantly impairs patients’ quality of life through physical disability, pain from both muscle and skin disease, cutaneous disfigurement, skin sensitivity to light and touch, and high levels of dependency on chronic high-dose steroids.
LISRAYA, a first-in-class TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor, is the first and only targeted therapy approved for dermatomyositis. LISRAYA is proven to provide a wide array of efficacy benefits for adult DM patients, including improvements in skin disease, muscle strength, physical function, and overall disease burden, alongside substantial steroid-sparing benefit. LISRAYA can be prescribed by healthcare professionals in the United States effective immediately.
LISRAYA’s approval follows the landmark Phase 3 VALOR trial, the largest DM trial ever conducted.
In the VALOR trial, benefits on the primary endpoint, the myositis Total Improvement Score (a composite measure designed to capture improvement across multiple disease domains), were seen as early as Week 4, increased over time, and were sustained to the end of the 52-week study. Most patients treated with LISRAYA were able to achieve both moderate or better improvement on the Total Improvement Score and minimal or no steroid use by the end of the study (55%, compared to 30% on placebo), underscoring LISRAYA’s ability to simultaneously improve disease symptoms and reduce steroid dependency. Among patients receiving LISRAYA who were taking ≥7.5 mg/day (prednisone-equivalent) of oral corticosteroids at baseline, 62% tapered to minimal or no steroid use (≤2.5 mg/day) by the end of the 52-week study, compared with 38% on placebo; 45% came off corticosteroids entirely, compared with 29% on placebo.
LISRAYA also demonstrated benefit on independent measures of skin disease and muscle strength, and, critically, on endpoints that directly capture patients’ own experience living with dermatomyositis. When asked to rate the overall activity of their disease, patients receiving LISRAYA reported more than four times as much improvement as patients on placebo. On a measure of everyday function – including pain and core activities of daily living such as getting dressed, climbing stairs, and running errands – patients treated with LISRAYA achieved clinically meaningful improvement, while those receiving placebo worsened, highlighting LISRAYA’s ability to restore greater independence and personal agency to DM patients’ lives.
The most common adverse reactions for patients on LISRAYA in the VALOR trial were upper respiratory tract infection, headache, fatigue, urinary tract infection, nausea, bronchitis, arthralgia, diarrhea, back pain, fall, influenza, and acne.
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Source: Roivant
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