Adherence and resource use among psoriasis patients treated with biologics

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The emergence of immune-modulating drugs such as biologics has altered the treatment landscape for psoriasis. However, their use presents high financial costs to patients and healthcare systems. Patient demographic and socioeconomic status may influence adherence to biologic medications and usage of healthcare resources.

Areas covered: We performed a systematic literature review to summarize the available evidence pertaining to biologic medication adherence and resource use. PubMed was searched using the terms ‘psoriasis and adherence’ and ‘psoriasis biologics resource use.’

Expert commentary: Psoriasis patients utilize many healthcare resources. Adherence rates are typically higher for biologics than for other psoriasis treatment categories. However, adherence rates are still suboptimal.

KEYWORDS:

• Adherence
• biologics
• drug cost
• healthcare resource use
• psoriasis

Declaration of interest

S. Feldman has received research, speaking and/or consulting support from a variety of companies including Galderma, GSK/Stiefel, Almirall, Leo Pharma, Baxter, Boeringer Ingelheim, Mylan, Celgene, Pfizer, Valeant, Taro, Abbvie, Cosmederm, Anacor, Astellas, Janssen, Lilly, Merck, Merz, Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, Novan, Parion, Qurient, National Biological Corporation, Caremark, Advance Medical, Sun Pharma, Suncare Research, Informa, UpToDate and National Psoriasis Foundation. He is founder and majority owner of www.DrScore.com and founder and part owner of Causa Research, a company dedicated to enhancing patients’ adherence to treatment. 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 reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they are an employee of Janssen pharmaceuticals.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.