Adalimumab in children and adolescents with severe plaque psoriasis: a safety evaluation

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory systemic disease that affects 2% of the population and is associated with an important physical and physiological burden. About 0.5–2% of psoriatic cases onset during the pediatric age range, and often it’s not diagnosed until adulthood. Adalimumab is an antitumor necrosis factor monoclonal antibody approved for use in children in 2008 and now it was used in several diseases in rheumatology, gastroenterology, and in dermatology.

Areas covered: The purpose of this article was to summarize what has been described in the literature so far, about safety in the use of adalimumab in pediatric psoriasis. The presented data was extrapolated from a literature review from PubMed searches (using words ‘pediatric psoriasis,’ ‘adalimumab children,’ ‘adalimumab safety,’ ‘pediatric psoriasis treatment,’ ‘adalimumab clinical trial’), treatment guidelines, and reports from European and United States regulatory agencies.

Expert opinion: Actually there are some biologic agents for the treatment of pediatric psoriasis, but the lack of safety data from controlled trials is evident. The safety data on the use of adalimumab in pediatric psoriasis was taken from long-term studies in the adult population. These studies confirm the data on the safety of the drug as it is also supported by several works on real-life.

KEYWORDS:

• Biologic therapy
• adalimumab (ADA)
• antitumor necrosis factor alfa (TNF alfa)
• safety of ADA
• pediatric psoriasis

Reviewer disclosures

A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they are an employee of Mount Sinai and have received research funds from: Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Incyte, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Leo Pharmaceuticals, Medimmune/Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Sciderm, Valeant, and ViDac. They are also a consultant for Allergan, Aqua, Boehringer-Ingelheim, LEO Pharma, Menlo, Mitsubishi, Promius, and Theravance. All other peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

L Bianchi has served as a speaker and 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 paper has not been funded.