Deucravacitinib Provides Superior Real-World PsO Skin Clearance at 6 Months

Real-world data from the North American cohort of the RePhlect registry confirm that deucravacitinib provides significantly better skin clearance than apremilast at 6 months in adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

The observational analysis, presented by Dr. April Armstrong et al at the 2025 Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference, used data from the CorEvitas Psoriasis Registry and included 472 patients—198 initiating deucravacitinib and 274 initiating apremilast. After entropy score balancing to adjust for baseline differences, deucravacitinib demonstrated superior outcomes across all measured endpoints.

At 6 months:

• 48.4% of patients on deucravacitinib achieved BSA ≤3% vs 33.6% on apremilast (RR 1.44; P = .018),

• 53.1% reached IGA 0/1 vs 31.1% (RR 1.71; P = .019),

• 40.4% achieved PASI ≤3 vs 32.4% (RR 1.32; P = .035).

Using National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) criteria:

• 48.3% of deucravacitinib users met the NPF acceptable response vs 34.6% with apremilast (RR 1.40; P = .028),

• 34.4% achieved NPF target response (BSA ≤1%) vs 15.5% (RR 2.21; P = .005).

These findings are consistent with phase 3 trials (POETYK PSO-1 and PSO-2) that established the superior efficacy of deucravacitinib over apremilast in controlled settings. This real-world evidence further supports its clinical advantage in diverse dermatology practice settings.

“Findings from this North American-based real-world registry indicate that patients receiving deucravacitinib had statistically significantly greater improvements across skin clearance outcomes 6 months after initiating treatment than patients receiving apremilast,” the authors concluded.