Status of a real-life cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis treated with secukinumab and considerations on the use of biological agents in the Covid-19 era

ABSTRACT

Introduction

In light of the current Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing, extensive debate about the use of biological agents in psoriatic patients, we felt compelled to relate our experience in the use of secukinumab in the same cohort before and during the lockdown in Italy. Areas covered: Secukinumab was not discontinued, and there were no cases of confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2 in this cohort. Expert opinion: In our practice, there is no evidence favoring the discontinuation of secukinumab in these patients. We also present a brief commentary on the use of biological agents in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-IL-17
• coronavirus
• Covid-19
• psoriasis
• secukinumab

Acknowledgments

Editorial assistance on this manuscript was provided by Dr. Patrick Moore on behalf of Health Publishing & Services srl. This unconditional support was funded by Novartis Farma.

Declaration of interest

L Bianchi has served as a speaker and as a consultant for Abbvie, Novartis, Janssen-Cilag, Pfizer, UCB, and Leo-Pharma outside the submitted work. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This article was not funded.