MIAMI – Skin clearance rates among people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis treated with brodalumab were superior to clearance rates among those treated with ustekinumab in a study that also provided comparisons between white and nonwhite patients.
In the study, presented in a poster at the 2018 Orlando Dermatology Aesthetic and Clinical Conference, there were no significant difference in overall efficacy, safety, or health-related quality of life outcomes between white and nonwhite patients treated with either biologic.
Additional analyses specific to patients with skin of color can be beneficial, Amy McMichael, MD, one of the investigators, said in an interview. “Patients with skin of color experience differences in psoriasis-related symptoms,” noted Dr. McMichael, chair of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. “Greater degrees of skin involvement have been shown in African-American patients, as have differences in erythema, scaling, dyspigmentation, and plaque thickness.”
She and her colleagues evaluated 1,849 participants in phase 3 brodalumab clinical trials, which included ustekinumab-treated patients as a comparison group. Approximately 10% of the AMAGINE-2 and AMAGINE-3 study populations were skin of color participants. The results reported at the meeting were from their ad hoc study of 12-week induction findings from the 52-week clinical trials.