Riccardo G. Borroni, Piergiorgio Malagoli, Luigi Gargiulo, Mario Valenti, Giulia Pavia, Paola Facheris, Emanuela Morenghi, Isotta Giunipero di Corteranzo, Alessandra Narcisi, Michela Ortoncelli, Paolo Dapavo, Antonio Costanzo
DOI: 10.2340/actadv.v101.283

Risankizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds the p19 subunit of interleukin-23. It is approved for treatment of moderate-severe chronic plaque psoriasis. This retrospective study included 66 consecutive adults with moderate-to-severe psoriasis vulgaris treated with risankizumab in monotherapy up to week 40 in a “real-life” setting. At week 40, 98.7%, 85.7% and 62.3% of patients achieved a Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) reduction ≥ 75% (PASI 75), PASI 90 and PASI 100, respectively. Patients who had not responded to 2 or more previous biologic treat­ments were significantly less likely to achieve PASI 75/90 at week 16 and PASI 90/100 at week 40 compared with those who had been previously treated with only 1 biologic, and compared with those treated with risankizumab as a first-line biologic. Increasing body mass index decreased the chances of reaching PASI 90 at week 40. No significant safety findings were recorded throughout the study, and none of the patients had to interrupt the treatment. These data suggest that the efficacy of risankizumab for plaque psoriasis in “real-life” clinical practice could differ from pivotal clinical trials data.

New biologic drugs are rapidly improving outcomes of psoriasis treatment. Risankizumab (a new anti-interleukin-23 monoclonal antibody) has shown efficacy in 5 clinical trials. However, only limited evidence is available on the effectiveness and safety of risankizumab in real-life patients. The results of this study confirm that the efficacy of risankizumab is maintained over 40 weeks, while showing different therapeutic responses among different groups of patients. No safety issues were reported. These findings, which need to be confirmed by longer and larger studies, could be useful to clinicians in treating a broad cohort of patients with psoriasis.