Biologic Treatments of Psoriasis: An Update for the Clinician

Abstract

The advent of biologic agents within the past two decades has dramatically improved the treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Given that there now exists 11 FDA approved biologic options available for psoriasis, with more in the pipeline, the therapeutic armamentarium has been greatly enhanced. However, the fact that there are so many available options has also caused confusion for providers. Therefore, this manuscript deliberately focuses on the most clinically useful facts (such as efficacy and safety data) about each and every FDA approved biologic agent (including pipeline agents) for psoriasis. Moreover, among the clinically relevant facts, this manuscript purposely emphasizes the unique merits and demerits of each agent to make it easier for the provider to select which one of these many options is the best for the particular patient on hand. The goal of this manuscript is to aid the busy practicing dermatologist in becoming more adept at using these agents with the ultimate aim of improving patient care.

Graphical abstract

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Keywords:

• biologic therapy
• psoriasis
• IL-17
• TNF-alpha
• IL 12/23
• psoriatic arthritis
• IL-23

Disclosure

Wilson Liao reports grants from Amgen, Novartis, Janssen, Leo Pharma, Sanofi, TRex Bio, and Regeneron. Tina Bhutani is currently an investigator for Abbvie, Galderma, Pfizer and Regeneron. She has served as an advisor for Abbvie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Clarify, Leo, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer and Sun Pharma. John Koo reports being a speaker and adviser for Amgen, Abbvie, Eli Lilly, Sun Pharmaceutical, Novartis, Ortho Dermatologic, Janssen and UCB. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.