Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease for which treatment has evolved over the past few years due to the introduction of immunobiologic and small molecule inhibitor medications. A better understanding of the comparative efficacies of drugs may help doctors to choose the most appropriate treatment for patients.
The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of immunobiologic and small molecule inhibitor drugs for patients with moderate to severe psoriasis.
The EMBASE, PUBMED, LILACS, Web of Science and ClinicalTrials.org databases were searched for trials published to 21 July 2016.
Only randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials that evaluated the efficacy of immunobiologics or small molecule inhibitors for moderate to severe plaque-type psoriasis were selected by two independent authors. No restrictions were used.
Two authors independently extracted the data and a random-effects model meta-analysis was performed.
The Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 75 was considered the primary outcome, measured at the primary endpoint of each study.
Thirty-eight studies were included in our analysis. The overall pooled effect favored biologics and small molecule inhibitors over placebo (risk difference [RD] 0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.58-0.60). Ixekizumab at a dose of 160 mg on week 0 and then every 2 weeks (RD 0.84, 95% CI 0.81-0.88), brodalumab 210 mg (RD 0.79, 95% CI 0.76-0.82), infliximab 5 mg/kg (RD 0.76, 95% CI 0.73-0.79), and secukinumab 300 mg (RD 0.76, 95% CI 0.71-0.81) showed a greater chance of response (PASI 75) when compared with placebo.
The methodology of a traditional meta-analysis does not allow for drugs to be ranked. Included studies used short-term endpoints (10-16 weeks) to evaluate the primary outcome, therefore long-term efficacy could not be determined.
The anti-IL-17 drugs brodalumab, ixekizumab and secukinumab showed an equal or greater chance of helping patients achieve a 75% improvement on PASI compared with other reviewed drugs.