‘Strong data’ support ESK-001’s potential as oral treatment for plaque psoriasis
Key takeaways:
- ESK-001, a tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor, may be a promising new oral treatment for plaque psoriasis.
- Patients taking ESK-001 twice daily maintained skin clearance up to a year.
ORLANDO — Patients treated with ESK-001 for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis experienced positive clinical responses through a year, according to a presentation at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.
ESK-001 (Alumis) is a highly selective, oral tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor that, when given at the highest clinical dosage (40 mg twice daily), achieves maximal target inhibition, according to the late-breaking presentation of results from the ongoing, phase 2 STRIDE trial.
The presenter, Andrew Blauvelt, MD, MBA, founder of Blauvelt Consulting and lead investigator of the trial, told Healio that the newly released data highlight ESK-001’s ability to achieve “long-lasting, robust clinical responses across key measures of skin clearance with favorable safety.”
“Strong data related to patient-reported outcomes also demonstrated improvements in quality of life and control of itch over time,” he continued.
In the study, 80 patients were treated with twice-daily ESK-001 40 mg through week 52. Compared with week 12, a higher proportion of patients achieved PASI 90 (61.3% vs. 52.4%), PASI 100 (38.8% vs. 26.8%) and static PGA 0 (38.8% vs. 32.9%).
By week 52, 81.3% of patients experienced a numerical rating scale itch score of less than 4 and 61.3% reported a DLQI score of 0 or 1.
ESK-001 treatment was also well tolerated and presented no new safety signals compared with those reported at weeks 16 and 28.
“While findings need to be confirmed in the ongoing phase 3 program, these data suggest that ESK-001 has the potential to be a promising new oral therapeutic option for psoriasis,” Blauvelt told Healio. “With a favorable benefit/risk profile, ESK-001 showed the potential to achieve skin clearance at rates comparable to biologic therapies, while being conveniently administered as an oral medication.”
Reference:
- Late-breaking ESK-001 phase 2 OLE data presented at 2025 AAD Annual Meeting demonstrate robust clinical responses over 52 weeks in psoriasis. https://investors.alumis.com/news-releases/news-release-details/late-breaking-esk-001-phase-2-ole-data-presented-2025-aad-annual. Published March 8, 2025. Accessed March 8, 2025.