Prior Psoriasis Tx No Obstacle to IL-17a Blocker

Front-loaded treatment with a novel psoriasis drug achieved 75% disease response in more than half of patients, irrespective of prior exposure or response to biologic therapy, results of a randomized trial showed.
Initial weekly treatment with the interleukin-17a (IL-17a) inhibitor secukinumab led to 75% clearance by the Psoriasis Activity and Severity Index (PASI) in 52% to 56% of patients categorized by treatment history. Monthly subcutaneous injections led to PASI-75 response rates as high as 56% in patients who had PASI-75 responses to prior biologic therapy.
Three different secukinumab dosing regimens had safety profiles similar to that of the placebo group, Mark Lebwohl, MD, reported here at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting.
“With the early induction regimen, even in patients who are biologic failures, you expect to see a response as good as that of patients who had responded to biologics and as good as that of patients who had not been treated with biologics,” said Lebwohl, of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
Following a subsequent poster presentation, a representative of the drug manufacturer suggested that prior exposure to biologic therapy does not faze secukinumab because it targets a

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