Effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in Chinese patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in real‐world practice

A number of randomized controlled trials and real-world studies have demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis, whereas data on a large cohort of Chinese patients in long-term real-world practice are limited. This was a single-centre, uncontrolled, single-arm, prospective, observational cohort study that included 254 psoriatic patients treated with secukinumab between September 2019 and December 2022. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients, clinical response and adverse events were evaluated. The 75% improvement in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI 75), PASI 90, and PASI 100 in the 300 mg secukinumab group at 12 weeks were 91.7%, 74.0% and 39.7% respectively, increasing to 94.5%, 74.5% and 47.6% at 52 weeks. High body mass index (BMI), previous exposure to biologic therapies and history of previous conventional systemic therapies were associated with lower rates of PASI response. During the study period, 68 patients reported 83 adverse events (AEs) and the most frequent AEs were eczematous lesions. Up to 14.5% patients withdrew treatment due to disease remission combined with inconvenient transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic at 52 weeks. The rate of psoriasis exacerbation after COVID-19 infection in patients treated with secukinumab was 24.3% (17/70). This real-world study confirmed the high effectiveness of secukinumab in Chinese patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, with an acceptable safety profile.