Numerous biologic drug options for psoriasis were available, but treatment was lacking. Biologic therapies’ efficacy and adverse events could vary, and many patients experience a loss of treatment effect over time. If there was no response, the treatment could be changed to a biologic with a different mechanism of action. Brodalumab, a human interleukin-17 (IL-17) receptor A antagonist, was approved for treating adults with moderate-to-severe psoriasis who’d had insufficient or lost response to prior systemic therapies. Because brodalumab targets the IL-17 receptor rather than the ligand, it targets a broader set of IL-17 isoforms and could also be effective in patients who had previously received IL-17 inhibitors and had failed to respond to anti–IL-17 treatment. This was supported by long-term evidence from clinical trials and real-world studies of patients treated with IL-17 inhibitors who received brodalumab. Brodalumab produces consistent treatment effects when combined with biologics with different mechanisms of action, such as tumor necrosis factor and IL-12/IL-23 inhibitors, as well as when combined with multiple biologic therapies. Brodalumab was an option for patients with psoriasis who had not responded well to one or more biologic therapies. It would have the potential to result in long-term skin clearance.
