A Pill to Stop the Swell: A New Drug Aims to Redefine Life with HAE

ZUG, Switzerland – June 15, 2026

For the estimated one in 50,000 people living with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE), life is often measured in proximity to a syringe. The rare genetic disorder triggers unpredictable, severe, and potentially fatal swelling attacks that can close an airway in hours. Management has long been a world of injectables, complex protocols, and constant vigilance. But new data presented this week suggests that reality is poised for a fundamental shift, moving treatment from a needle to a simple pill.

At the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Annual Congress, biopharmaceutical company Pharvaris unveiled compelling results for deucrictibant, an investigational oral drug. The data, spanning on-demand attack treatment and long-term prevention, paints a picture of a future where managing this debilitating condition could become dramatically less burdensome, humanizing the treatment process and potentially restoring a sense of normalcy to patients' lives.

The Human Cost and the Promise of a Pill

Hereditary Angioedema is a cruel and arbitrary disease. It causes episodes of severe swelling in the limbs, face, gastrointestinal tract, and, most dangerously, the throat. The underlying mechanism involves an overproduction of a molecule called bradykinin, which makes blood vessels leaky. For patients, this translates to a life of uncertainty, where a sudden attack can derail plans, cause excruciating pain, and necessitate an emergency trip to the hospital. The psychological toll—the constant fear of the next attack—is as significant as the physical one.

While modern medicine has produced effective treatments, they come with a significant burden. Many of the most powerful therapies are administered via intravenous or subcutaneous injections. This can mean self-injecting during a painful attack, scheduling life around clinic visits, or managing the logistics of refrigerated medicines while traveling. “The goal has always been to live a normal life,” explained one patient advocate. “But it’s hard to feel normal when you’re carrying a bag full of needles everywhere you go.”

This is the context into which Pharvaris hopes to introduce deucrictibant. The company is developing two oral forms of the drug: an immediate-release capsule for treating acute attacks and an extended-release tablet for long-term prevention. If successful, it would represent a paradigm shift, offering a comprehensive, needle-free approach to managing HAE.

A New Benchmark: Halting Attacks in Minutes

The most striking data from the EAACI conference came from the Phase 3 RAPIDe-3 study of the on-demand capsule. The results showed that deucrictibant provided symptom relief in a median of 1.28 hours, compared to over 12 hours for placebo. But the true innovation was the measurement of a new clinical endpoint called “End of Progression” (EoP). It’s a yardstick that measures not just when a patient starts feeling better, but the precise moment an attack stops getting worse—a critical distinction when swelling can escalate rapidly.

Treatment with deucrictibant resulted in a median time to EoP of just 17.47 minutes, compared to nearly four hours (228.67 minutes) for placebo. For a patient feeling the tell-tale tingling of a laryngeal attack, the ability to halt its progression in under 20 minutes with a single capsule could be life-altering. “Pharvaris’ commitment to developing therapies that can meaningfully improve standard of care remains at the forefront of our work,” said Berndt Modig, Chief Executive Officer of Pharvaris, in a statement. “We are proud to have sponsored the first-ever on-demand HAE clinical study that assessed EoP as a prespecified efficacy endpoint.”

Qualitative data from the study reinforced the clinical numbers. A remarkable 45.7% of participants reported that their experience with deucrictibant was an improvement over their past treatments, which included effective and well-tolerated injectables. This suggests that the convenience and rapid control offered by the oral capsule provides a meaningful boost to quality of life beyond just clinical efficacy.

A Vision for Long-Term Control and Safety

While stopping acute attacks is critical, the ultimate goal for many HAE patients is prevention. Pharvaris also presented long-term data for its extended-release prophylactic tablet from the CHAPTER-1 open-label extension study. The results were impressive, showing that participants treated for up to nearly three years saw their attack frequency reduced by an average of 92%, with about half of the participants remaining completely attack-free during the entire extension period.

Crucially, this long-term efficacy was paired with a favorable safety profile. A key concern for any drug that modulates the bradykinin system—which also plays a role in regulating blood pressure—is cardiovascular safety. Pharvaris presented an integrated analysis of approximately 570 participants across its clinical program, finding no evidence of increased cardiac risks, QT prolongation, or clinically meaningful changes in heart rate or blood pressure.

“Cardiovascular safety is a critical consideration,” noted Anne Lesage, Ph.D., Chief Early Development Officer at Pharvaris. “We believe these data provide important information on the cardiovascular safety of deucrictibant during its investigation as both a prophylactic and on-demand treatment.” This clean safety profile is vital for a therapy that patients may take daily for years, if not decades.

Navigating a Crowded Field to Redefine Normal

Pharvaris is not entering an empty field. The HAE market has seen a welcome influx of innovation, including BioCryst’s oral prophylactic Orladeyo and its recently approved oral on-demand treatment, Sebetralstat, as well as powerful injectables from Takeda and CSL Behring. However, Pharvaris is betting that its comprehensive oral platform, combining rapid attack resolution with effective long-term prevention from a single drug family, can offer a unique value proposition: simplicity and control.

The company is now preparing its marketing applications for the on-demand capsule while a pivotal Phase 3 study for the prophylactic tablet is ongoing, with data expected in the third quarter of 2026. The journey from clinical trial to medicine cabinet is still underway, but for a community long defined by the limitations of their condition, the prospect of managing HAE with a simple pill represents more than just medical progress. It represents a reclamation of daily life.