Richard Warren, MBChB, PhD

Credit: psoriasiscouncil.org

Plaque psoriasis patients treated with risankizumab, who had suboptimal responses to either secukinumab or ixekizumab, showed improvement in efficacy of signs and symptoms of the skin condition, according to new data.¹

The data also indicated that this sample population reported improvements with regard to health-related quality of life, in addition to no additional safety signals for risankizumab.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder affecting tens of millions around the world and is often addressed by clinicians with biologic treatments. This study used risankizumab—an interleukin-23 inhibitor approved for plaque psoriasis treatment—to examine its effects for this specific patient population.

This late-breaking data was presented at the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) 2023 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, by Richard Warren, MBChB, PhD, from the University of Machester.

Warren and colleagues conducted the study to assess the effectiveness and safety of using risankizumab in study participants with psoriasis who had a suboptimal response to treatment with secukinumab or ixekizumab for a minimum of 6 months.

The investigators defined static Physician’s Global Assessment (sPGA) as suboptimal if patients had reported a score of 2 or 3 and their body surface area was between 3% and 10% following half a year of the aforementioned 2 drugs.

They conducted the study as open-label and single-arm, with patients being given 150 mg or risankizumab at weeks 0, 4, and every 12 weeks through to week 40.

Their study assessed the patients' sPGA 0/1, sPGA 0, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and Psoriasis Symptom Scale (PSS) scores at week 52 using non-responder imputation, and monitored safety throughout the study.

Overall, the investigators’ results indicated that 63.0% of the study participants who switched to risankizumab achieved an sPGA of 0/1, and 26.2% of the group reported an sPGA of 0.

Additionally, 46.5% of study participants achieved DLQI scores of 0/1, and 27.4% were able to achieve a score of 0 on the PSS.

The investigators also reported that no new safety signals were observed during the course of their study.

References

1. Warren R, et al. Efficacy and safety after 52 weeks in psoriasis patients switching to risankizumab after suboptimal response to secukinumab or ixekizumab. Paper presented at: American Academy of Dermatology 2023 Annual Meeting; March 17 – 21. New Orleans, LA. Accessed March 19, 2023.