Ixekizumab leads to greater improvement in itch severity in psoriasis

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis treated with ixekizumab reported greater and more rapid improvement in itch severity compared with patients treated with Enbrel or placebo during 12 weeks, according to research presented at the World Congress of Dermatology.

Gil Yosipovitch, MD, of the Department of Dermatology and Temple Itch Center, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and colleagues studied 1,224 patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis who were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous placebo (n=168), Enbrel (etanercept, Amgen) 50 mg twice weekly (n=358), or ixekizumab (Eli Lilly) 80 mg in a single injection every 2 weeks (n=351) or every 4 weeks (n=347), following an initial starting dose of 160 mg.

Gil Yosipovitch

Itch Numeric Rating Scale (Itch NRS), a patient-reported scale from 0 for no itch to 10 for worst itch imaginable in 24 hours, was used to assess itch severity. The researchers compared improvement in itch severity and percentage of patients with a pre-specified response (score reduction of 4 points or more from baseline to week 12) or with an Itch NRS score of 0 at week 12.

Baseline Itch NRS scores were 6.7 for 2-week ixekizumab, 6.5 for 4-week ixekizumab, 6.4 for placebo and 6.6 for etanercept. As early as week 1, both the 2-week and 4-week ixekizumab cohorts displayed greater improvements in itch severity (–2.3 and –2.7, respectively) compared with the placebo (–0.8, P < .001) and etanercept (–1; P < .001) treatment cohorts. Changes in Itch NRS scores remained significantly larger at week 12 in the 2-week and 4-week ixekizumab cohorts (–5.2 and –4.9, respectively) compared with the placebo (–0.4; P < .001) and etanercept (–3.6; P < .001) cohorts.

An Itch NRS score of 0 at week 12 was reported by more patients in the 2-week and 4-week ixekizumab groups (40.7% and 40.6%, respectively) compared with those treated with placebo (2.4%; P< .002) and etanercept (17.3%; P < .001). – by Bruce Thiel

Reference:

Kimball A, et al. FC32-04. Ixekizumab Impact on Itch Severity Compared to Etanercept and Placebo: Results from Undercover-2, a Phase 3 Trial in Patients with Plaque Psoriasis. Presented at: 23rd World Congress of Dermatology; June 8-13, 2015; Vancouver, British Columbia.