OBJECTIVES

: Persistence for biologic treatments for psoriasis is an important parameter reflecting the long-term therapeutic performance in a real-life setting. The objective of this study was to investigate the persistence of biological treatments for plaque psoriasis in a real life setting in France.

METHODS

: Data were obtained from the IQVIA LifelinkTM Treatment Dynamics (LTD) database which consists of a panel of 21,769 pharmacies in France. Adult patients that initiated a new biologic in 2017 were included and followed for 12 months. Patients were defined as biologic-naïve for psoriasis if no dispensation of the studied biologics for psoriasis was recorded in the 12 months before the patient’s index date. An algorithm was used to identify patients that had psoriasis indications alone. Treatment discontinuation was defined as a treatment gap of ≥90 days after the theoretical expected date of treatment renewal.

RESULTS

: A total of 1562 patients initiated treatment with either etanercept (7%), adalimumab (33%), ustekinumab (28%), secukinumab (26%), or ixekizumab (6%) and were followed for 12 months. On average patients were 47 years old, 58.5% were males, and 75.0% of the patients were biologic naïve.

Overall, 54.7% of patients were still on treatment at 1 year. The 1 year persistence rate per treatment were 29.3% for etanercept, 47.9% for adalimumab, 63.9% for ustekinumab, 57.0% for secukinumab, and 58.5% for ixekizumab. Overall, the 1 year drug persistence for biologic naïve (54.0%) and biologic experienced (56.8%) patients were almost similar. However, it should be noted that patient numbers are low for biologic experienced patients.

CONCLUSIONS

: The psoriasis patients on anti-interleukin biologic therapies had a higher 1 year persistence rate than patients treated with traditional tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors in the French panel of pharmacies in 2017/2018.