Top-line trial data unveiled by Janssen at the 2018 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting over the weekend indicate that the benefit of Tremfya in patients with severe plaque psoriasis is maintained in the long-term.
The company said that the “vast majority” of patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis receiving Tremfya (guselkumab), who achieved at least a 90 percent improvement in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI 90) at week 28, maintained a PASI 90 response with continuous treatment through week 72.
According to the data, 86 percent of patients taking the novel biologic who achieved PASI 90 continued to do so through week 72, while only 11.5 percent of patients who were withdrawn from treatment maintained a PASI 90 response.
Findings from the VOYAGE 2 study also showed that of the 173 patients who were withdrawn from receiving Tremfya, 87.6 percent achieved a PASI 90 response within six months of re-commencing retreatment.
“The longer-term data from VOYAGE 2 shows promising results for guselkumab as both a continuous, long-term treatment for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and as an option for patients who have been withdrawn from therapy and retreated,” said study investigator Prof. Kristian Reich, MD of Dermatologikum Berlin and SCIderm Research Institute in Hamburg, Germany.
“These data provide important information to dermatologists should they need to interrupt treatment with guselkumab for a period of time, as the findings demonstrate guselkumab quickly and robustly re-established a PASI 90 response within six months.”
Tremfya is the first biologic approved to treat psoriasis that selectively blocks interleukin (IL)-23, a cytokine that plays a key role in initiating a specific immune inflammatory response in patients with the condition.
