Taltz delivers more cumulative days with completely clear skin for adults with psoriasis, compared to seven other biologics.

Lilly's Taltz delivers more cumulative days with completely clear skin for adults with psoriasis, compared to seven other biologics.

What’s more, Taltz also helped patients stay on treatment longer and have more days without additional therapy in three real-world analyses of U.S. claims data.

The studies were presented at the American Academy of Dermatology's Virtual Meeting Experience.

 In the first one-year network meta-analysis based on area under the curve, Taltz showed numerically greater cumulative benefits on completely clear skin over one year compared to adalimumab, brodalumab, etanercept, guselkumab, risankizumab, secukinumab and ustekinumab, as measured by Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) 100.  In this analysis, Taltz showed one to 18 more cumulative weeks of completely clear skin over one year compared to these seven other biologics. 

Taltz provided patients with a total of 159 cumulative days (95% credible interval, 147.4-170.0 days), or 23 weeks of completely clear skin (PASI 100), which translates into a patient having completely clear skin for approximately 44 percent of the year compared to: risankizumab (152 days [141.6-162.0 days], or 22 weeks and 42% of the year); brodalumab (138 days [119.0-157.2 days], 20 weeks and 38% of the year); guselkumab (131 days, [120.8-141.6 days], 19 weeks and 36% of the year); secukinumab (119 days [111.7-127.0 days], or 17 weeks and 33% of the year); ustekinumab (74 days [63.3-84.4 days], or 11 weeks and 20% of the year), adalimumab (67 days [55.7-77.9 days], or 10 weeks and 18% of the year) and etanercept (32 days [23.7-39.7 days], or 5 weeks and 9% of the year). 

“This meta-analysis shows that people taking Taltz have about 160 days of completely clear days a year – more than any other biologic included in this analysis,” says Mark G. Lebwohl, MD., Dean for Clinical Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York Citt, and lead author of this analysis. “I am excited to have insight about the one-year cumulative clinical benefit of biologic treatments available to treat psoriasis. “

 In a related study, people with psoriasis taking Taltz achieved greater success taking medication as prescribed and staying on medication for the prescribed duration, without needing additional medications, compared to those taking secukinumab, ustekinumab, adalimumab and etanercept up to three years. Patients on Taltz stayed on treatment an observed median of nearly 22 weeks longer vs. all other biologics pooled (414 vs. 259 days, [59 vs. 37 weeks], p<0.001) and approximately 11 to 34 weeks longer vs. individual treatments: secukinumab (335 days [48 weeks]), adalimumab (301 days [43 weeks]), etanercept (181 days [26 weeks]) and ustekinumab (176 days [25 weeks]). Compared with the pooled set of other biologics where patients stayed on prescription for less than half of the year (45.7%), patients on Taltz took treatment as prescribed for over half of the year (53.2%), as measured by proportion of days covered (PDC) by prescribed treatment (p<0.001). Patients taking Taltz also experienced more time (52.7% of the year) on monotherapy compared to the pooled set of other biologics (44.8% of the year) (p<0.001). 

A third study found that patients on Taltz took treatment as prescribed nearly eight weeks more than Guselkumab, despite more frequent dosing. Compared to guselkumab, patients with psoriasis on Taltz adhered to treatment for nearly eight weeks more time (Taltz: median of 272 days or 39 weeks [PDC=0.75]; guselkumab: 219 days or 31 weeks [PDC=0.60], p=0.001) and had approximately six weeks more time on monotherapy (Taltz: median of 247 days or 35 weeks [PDC=0.68]; guselkumab: 202 days or 29 weeks [PDC=0.55], p=0.002) over one year. Among those patients who required additional psoriasis therapies, the need for systemic medication was similar for patients taking Taltz or guselkumab over the year. 

A fourth study showed that patients on Taltz with prior biologic use were more likely to continue treatment as prescribed compared to Secukinumab. Among participants who had previously used a biologic, patients with psoriasis treated with Taltz were more likely to be "highly adherent," which was measured by more than 80 percent of days where they took treatments as prescribed (Taltz: 42.0% vs. secukinumab: 35.0%, p=0.019). Taltz was associated with 25 percent lower risk of switching treatments, 20 percent lower risk of stopping treatment before the end of the prescribed duration (non-persistence), 19 percent lower risk of discontinuing treatment, and 36 percent higher odds of taking treatment as prescribed (adherence) than secukinumab. 

"These new data reveal real-world evidence showing that patients with psoriasis who were treated with ixekizumab stay on treatment longer compared to several other biologics, regardless of past biologic experience," says Andrew Blauvelt, MD, MBA, a board-certified dermatologist, president of Oregon Medical Research Center, and lead author of these analyses, in a news release. "The ability to stay on a biologic over time correlates with treatment success, whereas switching biologic therapies in practice is associated with more time, healthcare costs and patient dissatisfaction. These data demonstrate high treatment persistence with ixekizumab, and thus provide important data for dermatologists to consider when choosing a biologic therapy for their psoriasis patients."

More on the Studies

Cumulative Clinical Benefits of Biologic Treatments for Psoriasis over 1 Year

The network meta-analysis used data from published Phase 3 clinical trials for Taltz, adalimumab, brodalumab, etanercept, guselkumab, infliximab, risankizumab, secukinumab and ustekinumab to evaluate the cumulative clinical benefits of psoriasis treatments. The area under-the-curve (AUC) method was used to measure total cumulative benefit, which takes into account the early effect seen from week 0 and sustained effect through week 52, using four-week increments, whereas traditional analyses use one-time measurements at week 12, 16 or 52. The cumulative benefits for each treatment were normalized as a percentage of maximum possible AUC. Cumulative days at PASI 90 and PASI 100 were calculated by multiplying normalized AUC by the study duration. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the same clinical trials with 48-week data.
 

Ixekizumab Demonstrates Greater Medication Adherence, Persistence and Longer Monotherapy Duration than Secukinumab, Ustekinumab, Adalimumab and Etanercept up to 3 Years in the Treatment of Psoriasis: Real-World Results from IBM MarketScan Database

Using claims from the IBM MarketScan Database from January 1, 2016, to April 30, 2020, adherence, persistence and monotherapy rates were evaluated for 7,797 adult patients with psoriasis prescribed Taltz (n=742), secukinumab (n=1,027), ustekinumab (n=1,912), adalimumab (n=3,592), or etanercept (n=524). Patients had ≥6 months pre-index and ≥1-year post-index continuous enrollment and were followed up to three years after their first prescription. Treatment comparisons were based on balanced samples after inverse probability of treatment weighting.
 

Real-World Comparison of Monotherapy and Concomitant Medication Use with Biologic Therapies for Psoriasis: Ixekizumab vs. Guselkumab

Using claims from the IBM MarketScan Database from July 1, 2017, through December 31, 2018, monotherapy and additional medication usage were compared between Taltz and guselkumab, the first IL-23 to have a large enough sample size to do a robust analysis. Adult patients with psoriasis with ≥1 prescription claim for Taltz (n=676) or guselkumab (n=739) were included. The first prescription claim was the index date; patients had continuous enrollment for ≥6 months pre-index and ≥1-year post-index. Treatment comparisons were based on balanced samples after inverse probability of treatment weighting.
 

Comparison of Long-Term Treatment Patterns between Ixekizumab and Secukinumab Users among Biologic-experienced Psoriasis Patients

Using claims from the IBM MarketScan Database from March 1, 2016, to October 31, 2019, long-term treatment patterns were compared among patients previously treated with a biologic who were then treated with Taltz (n=411) or secukinumab (n=780). The index date was the date of first Taltz or secukinumab claim. Adults with psoriasis with ≥1 prior biologic prescription six months pre-index and 18 months post-index period continuous enrollment with medical and pharmacy benefits were included in this study. Treatment comparisons were based on balanced samples after inverse probability of treatment weighting.