An update on the safety of apremilast for the treatment of plaque psoriasis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Apremilast is an oral phosphodiesterase inhibitor, approved for moderate to severe psoriasis in adults. Despite the advancement in dermatology, and the introduction of newer biological drugs, apremilast this is the only novel oral medication that has been introduced to treat psoriasis in the past two decades. Like additional other more traditional oral medications, its advantages and disadvantages should be discussed and compared within this group of oral-systemic medications.

Area covered: We conducted a review to assess the safety, efficacy, and adherence of apremilast for psoriasis treatment. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of apremilast regarding its mechanism of action, indications, and adverse events.

Expert opinion: Apremilast has been found to be a safe and efficacious drug for moderate-to-severe psoriasis, and despite minor numerous side effects, most of the patients adhere to the therapy. Therefore, overall, it may be easily embraced as the drug of choice for this category. However, for more severe psoriasis cases newer biological drugs seem to be superior to apremilast.

KEYWORDS:

• Apremilast
• phosphodiesterase inhibitor
• safety
• efficacy
• psoriasis

Declaration of interest

NH Shear has served as a consultant to Celgene Canada, Amgen, AbbVie, Lilly Canada, Sun Pharma, Leo Pharma, Janssen, Pfizer, Bausch Medical, Sanofi Genzyme, and Novartis. 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.

Reviewer disclosures

A peer reviewer of this manuscript discloses receiving honoraria from Amgen, Celgene, Abbvie, Novartis, Fresenius, UCB, Lilly, Leo, and Janssen. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no other relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.