OBJECTIVES : To describe the demographics, treatment history, and secukinumab usage patterns of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who initiated secukinumab in a real-world setting in the United States.

METHODS : This study analyzed service request forms (SRFs) jointly filled by patients with AS and their health care providers at the time of secukinumab initiation from January 15, 2016, to December 31, 2016. Patient demographics, treatment history, and secukinumab usage (initiation and maintenance dose) were analyzed descriptively. Categorical variables were summarized as number and percent of patients; continuous variables were summarized by means and standard deviations.

RESULTS : A total of 1397 patients with AS with secukinumab SRFs from 732 unique providers were included. Patients were from all regions of the United States (Northeast, 13.3%; North Central, 20.5%; South, 36.0%; West, 26.3%; Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands, 0.2%); approximately half (52.1%) were female and the mean (SD) age was 49.4 (12.8) years. Overall, 6.4% of patients had no prior biologic use, 40.9% received ≥ 1 prior biologic therapy, and 52.7% had missing information about prior biologic use. Among patients with prior biologic use, 38.3% had 1 reported biologic efficacy failure, 38.3% had 2 efficacy failures, and 23.4% had ≥ 3 efficacy failures; the most commonly reported biologic efficacy failures were adalimumab (69.7%) and etanercept (61.3%). For both initial and maintenance dosing, the majority of patients were prescribed secukinumab 150 mg (75.7% and 80.3%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS : In this analysis of SRFs filled by patients with AS and their health care providers, the majority of patients were prescribed secukinumab 150 mg for both initial and maintenance dosing. These results provide early insights into the usage patterns of secukinumab for AS in a US real-world setting. Further research is necessary to better understand how clinical characteristics and treatment history may affect secukinumab usage in US patients with AS.