Efficacy, safety, and drug survival of IL-23, IL-17, and TNF-alpha inhibitors for psoriasis treatment: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Real-life studies in psoriasis are lacking. Many monoclonal antibodies targeting tumor-necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin 17, and 23 are approved drugs for psoriasis treatment. OBJECTIVES: To compare the short and long-term efficacy, safety, and drug survival of anti TNF-alpha, anti-IL-17, and anti-IL-23 in a large case series. METHODS: Psoriasis area severity index (PASI) and retention rates for adalimumab, secukinumab, guselkumab, ixekizumab, and brodalumab were analised. RESULTS: A total of 263 patients were randomly selected among the five drugs register of the patients attending the Psoriasis Unit at the Turin University Hospital. The mean PASI at baseline was 14.3. Ixekizumab showed a significantly higher efficacy profile compared to other drugs in terms of PASI90 and PASI100 at week 12, 24, and week 48 even when adjusted for other confounding factors. This superiority was not followed by an expected higher drug survival. On the contrary, secukinumab was the only drug that showed a higher drug survival among bio-naïve patients.