Mark G. Lebwohl, MD: Winter Clinical Presentation on Choosing the Right Psoriasis Drug

In a recent interview with HCPLive, Mark G. Lebwohl, MD, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, discussed his 2023 Winter Clinical Miami presentation titled ‘Psoriasis: Which Drug for Which Patient?’

Lebwohl first began with a discussion of his background as Dean of Clinical Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine, as a dermatologist, and his research in the psoriasis space.

“I have been Chairman of Dermatology here for about a quarter of a century before a year and a half ago becoming Dean for Clinical Therapeutics,” he explained. “And I also am very involved in clinical research for virtually every psoriasis product that comes to market.”

Lebwohl prefaced his discussion about his Winter Clinical Miami presentation with a brief story on the reasons he had for presenting on the topic.

“I once had to speak to a group of 107 patients at a meeting of the National Psoriasis Foundation and the title of the talk was ‘Which drug for which patient?’” he said. “And I asked everyone to stand up. And I said, I'm going to list a number of conditions, everybody says standing and at the end of it, if I mentioned a condition that you have, sit down.”

Lebwohl explained that he listed many different conditions such as joint pain, obesity, a history of cancer, lupus, and multiple sclerosis. He added that by the end of his list, 106 of 107 sat down in their seats.

“You know, for patients who have a history of cancers, or especially skin cancers, which are the most common cancers, adalimumab predisposes you to more skin cancers,” he said. “So why would we give the patient that drug? And as a result, we've created all kinds of tools to help us navigate the insurance system so that our patients can indeed get the drug that is best for them.”

He further explained some of the major pieces of information covered in his presentation.

“So for example, the (National Psoriasis Foundation), together with the (American Academy of Dermatology), have led to the development of step therapy legislation in 33 states now,” Lebwohl said. “It's a tool that I actually created when I was president of the AAD, where if you…pick the drug, biologic A for psoriasis, and the insurance company wants you to use biologic X, your secretary can go to that website and in 30 seconds generate a letter explaining why your patient should get biologic A not biologic X.”

To learn more about Lebwohl’s presentation at Winter Clinical Miami, view the interview segment.