– The interleukin-17 receptor inhibitor brodalumab achieved complete clearance of moderate-to-severe psoriasis far faster and more frequently than the interleukin-12/23 inhibitor ustekinumab.

Bruce Jancin/MDedge News Dr. Kristian Reich

That’s according to a post hoc pooled analysis of the phase 3 randomized AMAGINE-1 and -3 trials that Kristian Reich, MD, reported at the annual congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Other interleukin-17 inhibitors have also outperformed ustekinumab (Stelara) in head-to-head, randomized trials. What’s unique about this new secondary analysis of the AMAGINE trials is the demonstration that the complete clearance rate – that is, 100% improvement in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) – with brodalumab (Siliq) was consistent, regardless of a psoriasis patient’s prior treatment history, according to Dr. Reich, professor of dermatology at Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany, and a partner at the Dermatologikum Hamburg.

“I don’t want to niche brodalumab as a rescue drug; but if you need a response in a patient who has failed a biologic, then obviously, this is a pretty good choice,” he said.

Typically, psoriasis patients who have previously failed to respond favorably to a biologic agent have a substantially lower complete clearance rate when placed on another biologic than do those who are biologic naive or haven’t been on a nonbiologic systemic therapy.

“I think it’s interesting that there is very little impact of previous treatment response with regard to this analysis when it comes to brodalumab,” the dermatologist observed. “It goes down a little bit, but if you compare it to ustekinumab, you see a very good robustness despite previous therapy.”

His presentation focused on the 339 AMAGINE-2 or AMAGINE-3 participants randomized to brodalumab at the approved dose of 210 mg by subcutaneous injection every 2 weeks, or to subcutaneous ustekinumab at the approved dose of 45 mg or 90 mg, depending upon body weight, on day 1, week 4, and then every 12 weeks in the 52-week trials.

It took 14 weeks for 50% of patients assigned to brodalumab to achieve a PASI 100 response, and 44 weeks to accomplish the same in the ustekinumab group. At 52 weeks, the PASI 100 response rate was 76% for brodalumab and 52% for ustekinumab.

This was a competing-risk analysis – a methodology relatively new to dermatology – in which the coprimary endpoint was inadequate response to treatment, as defined by a static Physician’s Global Assessment score of 3 or more or two consecutive sPGAs of at least 2 over a 4-week interval at any point from week 16 on. The inadequate response rate was 20% in the brodalumab group and 40% with ustekinumab.

Looking in the brodalumab group at PASI 100 response rates in relation to prior treatments, the complete clearance rate at week 52 was 76% in those with no prior systemic treatment at study entry, 78% in those with a history of nonbiologic systemic treatment, 75% in patients who hadn’t experienced treatment failure when previously on another biologic agent, and 70% in those with a baseline history of failure on a different biologic.

The corresponding PASI 100 rates in the ustekinumab group were strikingly lower, at 58%, 55%, 41%, and 30%.

Leo Pharma funded Dr. Reich’s post hoc analysis; Leo markets brodalumab in Europe. Dr. Reich reported receiving research funding from and serving as a consultant to that pharmaceutical company and numerous others involved in developing new drugs for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

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SOURCE: Reich K. EADV Congress, Abstract #FC03.06.