Celgene’s Otezla produces “meaningful benefits” beyond traditional metrics in plaque psoriasis
pharmafile | September 13, 2018 | News story | Research and Development | Celgene, otezla, pharma, psoriasis
Celgene made its voice heard amongst the chorus of new psoriasis data emerging from the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress in Paris, revealing that Otezla (apremilast) achieved “meaningful improvements” in outcomes of patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis that may not be captured by common metrics that focus only on skin clearance, such as the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI).
“Only considering skin clearance may not fully capture the effect a treatment may have on an individual’s disease burden and its impact on daily life,” explained Dr Denis Jullien, Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Edouard Herriot Hospital, and an author of the study. “For example, itching, which is not accounted for by PASI, is cited by over a third of patients as their overriding quality-of-life issue. These new analyses of Otezla studies can help inform both prescribers and patients when evaluating treatment decisions.”
The new findings included a post hoc sub-analysis of the phase 3 ESTEEM 1 trial, examining moderate to severe plaque psoriasis patients who did not achieve a PASI score of 75 after either 32 or 52 weeks of treatment with Otezla during the trial. In this group, over half achieved a 50% reduction in PASI score over the same periods – findings that Celgene argues “may more reliably indicate clinically meaningful benefit” when taken together with disease-specific quality-of-life measures.
For example, the data showed that itching was reduced from baseline by around 30% during weeks 4 to 52 for those who started treatment of Otezla, and during weeks 20 to 52 in patients who were switched form placebo at week 16. Additionally, patients reported an increase of at least five points in the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) over the same period.
“The ESTEEM and UNVEIL clinical trials continue to provide important learnings about Otezla for the treatment of psoriasis as well as quality of life for people who live with this chronic condition,” said Volker Koscielny, Vice President of Global Medical Affairs, Inflammation & Immunology at Celgene. “These sub-analyses of UNVEIL and ESTEEM suggest that appropriate patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who experience manifestations beyond skin may benefit from treatment with Otezla.”
Matt Fellows
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