Valbenazine for TD: Consistent Long-Term Efficacy Across Racial and Ethnic Subgroups in KINECT-4

Announcer:  
Welcome to DataPulse from Psych Congress 2025 on ReachMD. This activity, titled Valbenazine for Tardive Dyskinesia: Consistent Long-Term Efficacy Across Racial and Ethnic Subgroups in KINECT 4, is provided by Total CME. 

Dr. Meyer:  
Hello from Psych Congress 2025 here in San Diego. I'm Dr. Jonathan Meyer, and today I'm sharing some new subgroup findings from KINECT 4, a long-term trial of once-daily valbenazine for tardive dyskinesia, or TD. Today's focus is on how treatment outcomes vary—or don't—across various racial and ethnic groups.

Here's the study design: KINECT 4 was a 48-week open-label study of once-daily Valbenazine 40 or 80 mg, in adults with TD. This post hoc analysis evaluated efficacy and safety by self-identified race and ethnicity. 

The key findings were that all subgroups showed robust and clinically meaningful reductions in their AIMS total score. For the Hispanic/Latino group, 10.5-point reductions; for the non-Hispanic/non-whites, 10.0; and for the other group, 10.7. Importantly, the global improvement was also consistent with the change in the AIMS scores. 

If we look at the CGI-TD for those people who had scores of 2 or less, it was the same across all the groups: numerically, 97.7% for the Hispanic/Latino, 100% for the non-Hispanic/non-white, and 82.1% for the non-Hispanic/white. The patient-rated improvement, as PGIC using the score of 2 or less, was also very similar across the three groups, respectively: 93.0%, 81.0%, and 87.2%. 

The safety findings, including treatment-emergent adverse effects, serious treatment-emergent adverse effects, and discontinuations, were generally comparable across all of the subgroups.

I think the most important concept here is that we are in a society with a lot of different individuals, and the response to valbenazine once daily does not really vary across subgroups, regardless of their ethnicity or racial heritage. And I think this will give you confidence as you approach people who need treatment and not be overly concerned that there are any significant differences in drug metabolism or pharmacodynamic response, which would necessarily impinge or affect your choice of medication for tardive dyskinesia.

From the Psych Congress 2025, I'm Dr. Jonathan Meyer. Thank you for listening.

Announcer:  
Thank you for listening to this DataPulse from Psych Congress 2025 on ReachMD. This activity is provided by Total CME. Thank you for listening.