Background

Secukinumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody, was approved in Korea for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis in September 2015.

Objective

To assess the safety and effectiveness of secukinumab in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis in Korea.

Design

Multicenter, real-world, noninterventional study conducted over 6 years.

Methods

Adults with moderate to severe psoriasis were enrolled. Safety was assessed by evaluating adverse events (AEs), treatment-related AEs, and serious AEs (SAEs). Effectiveness was assessed using the change in absolute Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score, percentage of patients achieving PASI 75/90/100 and PASI ⩽2; at weeks 12 and 24.

Results

Overall, 829 and 542 patients were included in the safety and effectiveness sets, respectively. AEs, treatment-related AEs, and SAEs occurred in 29.0%, 9.5%, and 4.1% of patients, with incidence rates of 39.43, 12.98, and 5.59 per 100 patient years, respectively. The absolute PASI score decreased from 16.1 ± 7.1 (baseline) to 1.6 ± 2.4 (week 24), with a similar reduction in biologic-naïve (16.4 ± 7.3 to 1.5 ± 2.2) and biologic-experienced (14.8 ± 5.9 to 2.4 ± 3.2) groups. At week 24, PASI 75/90/100 was achieved by 95.1%, 62.4%, and 24.9% of patients. At week 24, PASI 75/90 were higher in biologic-naïve (96.6%/65.8%) than biologic-experienced patients (88.3%/48.6%), whereas PASI 100 was similar in both cohorts (24.1% and 28.6%). A similar trend in PASI ⩽ 2 was observed in both cohorts.

Conclusions

Secukinumab showed sustained effectiveness and favorable safety profile in adult patients with moderate to severe psoriasis in Korea.