Brodalumab in the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis in patients refractory to anti-interleukin-17A therapies: Evaluation of secondary endpoints

Abstract

Background: Brodalumab is an interleukin-17 receptor A antagonist approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Our prior publication reported significant disease improvement with brodalumab in psoriasis patients who had previously failed treatment with an anti-IL-17A agent. 

Objectives: We set out to investigate factors that differed between the patients who had treatment success with brodalumab and those who did not, including disease severity and underlying comorbidities. Other secondary endpoints included the extent of improvement in non-responders, characterization of the patients who discontinued early from the trial, and time to improvement on brodalumab.

Methods: We conducted an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved open-label study of a total of 39 subjects enrolled at 3 sites with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. All patients previously failed treatment with an IL-17A agent. Subjects received brodalumab 210 mg via subcutaneous injection at weeks 0, 1, and 2, followed by 210 mg every 2 weeks, up to week 16. Subjects were evaluated monthly for improvement in PASI and sPGA.

Results: Of the baseline comorbidities assessed, the only statistically significant difference between responders and non-responders was the presence of higher weight/BMI in non-responders in the AO dataset; this trend disappeared in the NRI dataset. Of the patients that dropped out of the trial early, 3 of the 5 had PASI improvements of >60%. A rapid onset to disease improvement was seen in the trial.

Conclusion: These results indicate that brodalumab may be a good treatment choice for psoriasis patients, including those with severe disease and/or underlying comorbidities.