These can be expensive and often require patients to routinely visit a provider to be treated and monitored.
Even oral immunosuppressant options can increase the risk of infection and other undesirable side effects.
I’m very excited to talk to my patients about this drug.
Lara Antal / Verywell
These participants all had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
On average, they experienced psoriasis for 17 years on a quarter of their bodies.
One group took a 6-milligram tablet of deucravacitinib once per day.
Other participants took 30 milligrams of apremilast twice daily or received a placebo.
This is a measurement indicating 75% improvement in the amount of skin surface area covered by plaques.
Additionally, plaques cleared or nearly cleared in more than half of the people treated with deucravacitinib.
Thats in contrast to only about 7% of people in the control group.
Patients who took deucravacitinib continued to improve over time.
Biologic drugs are given by injection or intravaneously and target specific portions of the immune system.
Both biologic and non-biologic immunosuppressant drugs often raise the risk of infection and other health problems.
Patients who take them often need to be monitored routinely.
Deucravacitinib, meanwhile, more specifically targets a key enzyme rather than suppressing the immune system broadly.
This approach, Armstrong said, makes it a safer alternative to the other available drugs.
How Does Deucravacitinib Work?
TYK2 is a member of theJanus kinase (JAK) family.
Many treatments for autoimmune disorders target JAKs, but most JAK inhibitors dont do much to affect TYK2.
Deucravacitinib works similarly to the widely-used psoriasis biologic agent Stelara (ustekinumab).
But that drug is a monoclonal antibody that needs to be injected in a hospital setting.
The 6-milligram pill is taken once a day.
It can be taken with or without food.
There are no known drug-drug interactions, so patients can use deucravacitinib alongside treatments for other conditions.
In clinical trials, patients who took deucravacitinib were less likely to discontinuation the treatment than those taking apremilast.
Patientsonce they are on the medicationtend to stay on the medication," Armstrong said.
As with many chronic conditions, pausing or stopping treatment may allow the condition to re-emerge.
More people who took deucravacitinib experienced adverse events than those who took the placebo.
Armstrong said people with severe liver disease should not take deucravacitinib.
It should also not be taken along with other immunosuppressants.
2021;80(Suppl 1):795.1-796. doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2021-eular.1002
National Psoriasis Foundation.Psoriasis statistics.
Feldman SR.Treatment of psoriasis in adults.
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