VIDEO: The future of psoriasis research

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That is a great question regarding which research area is receiving the most attention right now. I will say there are several areas that are quite exciting. First, i'll talk about the area of therapeutics.

In the topical realm for example, there are agents that are being developed to treat psoriasis by applying these topical agents. And they are targeting pathways that are not targeted typically by the topical corticosteroids. So they work differently from topical corticosteroids, which is traditionally being the most commonly used therapy.

And they're also very well tolerated. And doesn't have the side effects of steroids that we typically think about with regards to topical steroids. So this is quite exciting. And because the majority of our patients will still have more mild to moderate, severity of psoriasis, these topical agents will really change the landscape of the number of different tools that we have to use for patients with more mild to moderate disease.

In the realm of oral therapeutic medications, we will have medications that target small molecules that target intracellular pathways. And this is very important and we're also learning the safety profile of these medications. So if we're looking for oral therapies, we will have additional oral therapies for patients. And then finally, in the biological realm, we have newer developments in the interleukin 17 pathway where we know that interleukin 17 is important in terms of the origins of psoriasis. And we are looking at a molecule that target that pathway to add to the existing interleukin 17 inhibitors.

But this molecule has a dual functions that may also be helpful in terms of getting our patients achieving higher levels of skin clearance. So these are some of the highlights of the exciting developments in the psoriasis area with regards to therapeutics. Another area I think that's quite important from a research perspective is increasing attention being paid to the area of personalized medicine. That is when there are a number of therapies available, how can one choose therapies or choose the quote unquote, the right therapy in the very beginning. And so there are a number of studies that are looking at biomarkers from the skin that can inform us with regards to which therapies may be the optimal therapy to begin with. And then finally an area that's near and dear to my heart.

And that I think is very important is really how we can better assess patient's treatment satisfaction. Believe it or not, we don't have a good validated tool specifically for psoriasis that assesses treatment satisfaction among our patients. And I think that's critically important to understand our patient's perspective and their experience with their therapy in a really accurate and valid way so that we can see what the educational gaps are and where we can help our patients really increase their chance at treatment success.