Introduction: Patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis who experience poor clinical outcomes, including patients with obesity or prior treatment, need improved treatment options. Risankizumab specifically inhibits interleukin 23 and has demonstrated superior efficacy in active-comparator studies in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. We compared the efficacy of risankizumab with that of secukinumab across patient subgroups.
Methods: Subgroup analyses using data from the phase 3 IMMerge study (NCT03478787) were performed. Efficacy in adults with moderate-to-severe psoriasis treated with risankizumab 150 mg and secukinumab 300 mg was assessed as the proportion of patients who achieved ≥ 90% improvement in Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI 90) at week 52 across demographics and disease characteristics. Post hoc analyses evaluated the proportion of patients who achieved PASI 90 and the least-squares mean percent PASI improvement from baseline at week 52 by body weight and body mass index (BMI), PASI 90 by prior treatment, and clinical response [PASI 90, PASI 100, and/or static Physician's Global Assessment (sPGA) score of clear (0) or almost clear (1)] at week 16 and maintained particular response at week 52. Logistic regression analyses examined the effect of covariates (age, sex, BMI, baseline PASI, treatment) and potential interactions on PASI 90 at week 52.
Results: More patients who received risankizumab (n = 164) compared with secukinumab (n = 163) achieved PASI 90 at week 52, regardless of demographics and disease characteristics (BMI, prior treatment, disease duration, and maintenance of clinical response at week 52). Improvements in PASI were greater in patients taking risankizumab than those taking secukinumab, regardless of weight or BMI. Results from logistic regression analysis showed treatment type had a significant impact on PASI 90 (risankizumab versus secukinumab, p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Risankizumab showed consistently greater efficacy compared with secukinumab across different patient subgroups, and this was maintained through 52 weeks.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier; NCT03478787.
Keywords: Biologics; Prior psoriasis treatment; Psoriasis; Risankizumab; Secukinumab; Subgroup analysis; Weight.
Patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis are often unable to achieve treatment success with currently available biologic therapies when they have other conditions, such as obesity, or have previous biologic therapy exposure and/or failure. We studied patients in the IMMerge phase 3 clinical trial (NCT03478787) to assess the efficacy of risankizumab compared with secukinumab for the treatment of plaque psoriasis and to determine risankizumab’s ability to remain effective after 52 weeks of administration. In our analysis, we looked across patient subgroups including patient body weight, body mass index, previous use of biologic therapies, length of time patients had been living with their disease, and the durability of risankizumab efficacy at 52 weeks. Results from our analysis showed that patients had greater success with risankizumab compared with secukinumab in treating their plaque psoriasis, despite their age, sex, race, and disease characteristics, and that risankizumab remained effective in treating plaque psoriasis at week 52. Previously reported safety results from the IMMerge clinical trial showed that there were no new concerns regarding side effects for either risankizumab or secukinumab. Overall, these results support the use of risankizumab to treat patients, including those who have other conditions or may not have had success with other therapies in treating their plaque psoriasis.
© 2022. The Author(s).