Reflecting on Latest Updates in Psoriasis Research with Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD

In light of the latest developments in the field of dermatology, many of them presented in late-breaking data at the 2024 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting, there have been several new studies which demonstrate promise for the psoriasis treatment armamentarium.

In a new interview, the HCPLive editorial team discussed some of the biggest developments with Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, MSCI, FAAD, associate professor at Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School and founder/director of the Center for Medical Dermatology and Immunology Research.

Chovatiya was first asked about the new 3-year data on Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) outcomes with patients on deucravacitinib, following the phase 3, 52-week results of the POETYK PSO-1 and PSO-2 studies.

“When it comes to oral therapies in psoriasis, I think we've just had so few that there's always been an open question of conveying maintain efficacy, particularly in people that stay on them continuously and do pretty well, in the same way we've come to expect with biologic therapies,” he explained. “So the nice thing with our TYK-2 inhibitor deucravacitinib is that in addition to its short and medium-term efficacy…you're seeing results maintained not only over 1 year, 2 years, but 3 years as well.”

Chovatiya added that for anyone on the fence about whether or not they may want to pursue an oral versus an injectable therapy, this may help assuage their concerns. Then, he was asked about the significance of JNJ-2113, the oral peptide, and its skin clearance results for psoriasis.

“Within 16 and 52 week data, what we're seeing is very similar levels of efficacy (to biologic therapies), meaning that we're actually getting to high levels of improvement pretty early on and it's being maintained,” Chovatiya said. “So a different mechanism of action, because it's not a formal enzyme inhibitor or allosteric site inhibitor…It goes back to the point that, oftentimes, we were very reticent to discuss oral therapies on the same par as biologic therapies just given the fact that we didn't have many options.”

Chovatiya was later asked about the new long-term data on bimekizumab for psoriasis treatment.

“Bimekizumab is the newest biologic therapy that we've had approved for moderate-to-severe psoriasis, one that we were waiting for for a while because it offers a unique proposition of extraordinarily quick results, high levels of clearance, and thus far pretty good sustained activity over time,” Chovatiya said. “...It’s really exciting to be thinking about patients that are almost completely clear, staying almost completely clear. Then people who are totally clear who are staying totally clear. And the fact that you're not seeing too much of a difference between these data from looking at maybe a PASI 90 or PASI 100 is also remarkable, because up until just a few years ago, PASI 75 was really what we were pushing on.”

For further information on these topics, view our conference coverage or the full interview segment posted above.

The quotes contained in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.