Secukinumab demonstrates clinical improvement in rosacea patients

Patients treated with secukinumab for papulopustular rosacea saw significant improvements in quality of life and reduction of severity markers, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Dermatology virtual meeting.

“Secukinumab binds IL-17A and neutralizes its pro-inflammatory effect. Recent analyses of biopsies implicate cytokine IL-17A in rosacea pathogenesis,” Anusha Kumar, BS, department of dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine wrote. “Currently, there is no cure for and limited systemic treatment options for rosacea.”

In an open-label, single arm trial, 23 participants were enrolled and dosed with 300 mg secukinumab during a 5-week induction period. A maintenance period of 2-months was followed with final endpoints assessed at 16 weeks. Initial clinical assessments of papule count and severity score were made by blinded dermatologists and compared during endpoint analysis using Wilcoxon signed-rank and sign tests.

Study results showed participants with 20 papules (n = 8) had a larger papule count reduction when compared to participants who presented with fewer papules at week 0 (P = .002). Further, participants with severe rosacea saw a 43% papule reduction vs. a 10% papule reduction in participants presenting with a lower severity.

“This proof-of-principle trial of secukinumab for rosacea demonstrated significant improvements in clinical signs and subjective symptoms of papulopustular rosacea after treatment with secukinumab for 16 weeks,” Kumar concluded.