A Japanese study has confirmed that sotatercept works just as well in Asian patients, even though pulmonary arterial hypertension presents somewhat differently in the Asian population: patients tend to have longer disease duration, more severe baseline profiles, and are more frequently on intensive triple therapy including parenteral prostacyclin.
This was a regional Phase 3, open-label study conducted exclusively in Japanese patients — its goal was not to re-establish efficacy against placebo, but to confirm that sotatercept’s benefits hold up in an Asian population. The enrolled patients had a median disease duration of over 10 years, all were on background combination therapy, more than 90% were on triple therapy, and nearly half were receiving parenteral prostacyclin. All patients were Qorld Health Organisation (WHO) functional class II or III — clinically stable, but persistently symptomatic despite intensive treatment. In other words, this was a tough crowd to impress.
Sotatercept delivered meaningful improvements across all key measures — pulmonary vascular resistance, six-minute walk distance, NT-proBNP levels, and WHO functional class — with a manageable safety profile and no new safety signals.
Read more at this link on the JACC
Citation
Wen, W, Cao, Y. Treatment Paradigm Shifts in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Evidence From Asia on Vasodilators to Antiremodeling Therapies. JACC: Asia. 2026 Mar, 6 (3) 310–313.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacasi.2026.01.007