High levels of clinical responses were seen throughout the first 48 weeks with bimekizumab treatment. These were maintained to Week 96 in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque PsO.

Blauvelt et al. shows superior and sustained efficacy for risankizumab in maintaining skin clearance over time versus placebo upon withdrawal, alongside a favourable safety profile in chronic plaque psoriasis through a phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, assessing PASI 90 and sPGA score of 0/1 at Week 16.

Researchers reported the safety and efficacy of deucravacitinib over 2 years in patients with chronic plaque PsO. The most frequently reported AEs were nasopharyngitis, URTI, and COVID-19.

Week 16 coprimary endpoints of PASI 75 response and sPGA score improved in the majority of patients and was overall maintained through week 52. Deucravacitinib therapy was also associated with a low AE rate. This study presented results from the POETYK PSO-4 trial on the safety and efficacy of deucravacitinib 6mg QD in Japanese patients with psoriasis.

This pooled analysis of the Phase 3 PSO-1 and PSO-2 trials shows that deucravacitinib has greater efficacy in treating scalp PsO than placebo and apremilast. At week 16, response rates were greater with deucravacitinib versus placebo or apremilast for scalp-specific Physician Global Assessment 0/1 and Psoriasis Scalp Severity Index. Efficacy was maintained through 52 weeks in patients who received continuous deucravacitinib treatment.

Here, investigators reported that efficacy measures for skin and scalp were significantly greater for apremilast than for placebo in patients with PsO at baseline. Previously, clinical study data has highlighted that the use of apremilast leads to a reduction in the expression within the epidermis of numerous inflammatory cytokines relevant to PsO. As a result, ESTEEM 1 evaluated the efficacy/safety of apremilast at 30 mg BID for moderate to severe PsO.

Here, the authors reported risankizumab to be both efficacious when compared to both placebo and ustekinumab in the treatment of moderate to severe plaque PsO. This publication aimed to describe two Phase 3 replicate studies, UltiMMa-1 and UltiMMa-2, which assessed the efficacy and safety of risankizumab compared with placebo or ustekinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque PsO.

Bimekizumab versus adalimumab in plaque psoriasis

N Engl J Med 2021; 385:130–41. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2102388

Bimekizumab was noninferior and superior to adalimumab with respect to PASI 90 response and IGA score at Week 16. Bimekizumab is a promising IL-17A/F inhibitor that has shown clinical improvement in PsO patients compared to placebo and other IL inhibitors. Warren et al. compared the safety and efficacy of bimekizumab with adalimumab in a 56-week double-blind trial.

This Phase 3 study by Strober, et al. reports deucravacitinib superiority to placebo and apremilast in patients with PsO. The authors found that deucravacitinib had significantly higher rates of PASI 75 and sPGA achievement than placebo and deucravacitinib.

Deucravacitinib has shown efficacy in the treatment of both skin and joint disease. As a result, researchers sought to compare the efficacy and safety of deucravacitinib versus placebo and apremilast in adults with moderate to severe plaque PsO.