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Stelara had higher retention rates than other biologics in patients with psoriasis

Stelara had better retention rates when compared with other biologics in the treatment of patients with severe psoriasis, according to study results published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Researchers used the database of Clalit Health Services, the largest public HMO in Israel, to perform survival analysis on 907 patients (40% female; mean age, 46.3 years) with severe psoriasis who received treatment of Humira (adalimumab, AbbVie), Remicade (infliximab, Janssen), Enbrel (etanercept, Amgen) and Stelara (ustekinumab, Janssen).

Multivariate analysis was conducted with adjustments.

There were 1,575 biologic treatments, and 865 discontinuations of treatments. Ustekinumab had a higher drug survival of 40.8 months compared with adalimumab (26.4 months), etanercept (26.35 months) and infliximab (23.9 months).  

“Biologic naivety and concomitant methotrexate intake were positive predictors for drug survival, whereas the female sex and duration of previous systemic treatments were negative predictors,” the researchers wrote.

“In comparison to previous reports, it seems that biologic drug survival rates in our [Clalit Health Services] patients are relatively low,” the researchers wrote. “This difference may be attributed partially to the Israeli guidelines for treatment of psoriasis.”

“We have shown that biologics efficacy in real-life clinical practice decreases over time,” the researchers concluded. “We observed that [ustekinumab] had higher retention rates in comparison with other investigated biologics, although most of its use was as a third-line in patients with severe psoriasis.” – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.