Treatment with Skyrizi demonstrated short- and long-term efficacy

US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) over the weekend released new 52-week data from an open-label, single-arm study demonstrating improved plaque psoriasis signs and symptoms among a difficult-to-treat patient population who received Skyrizi (risankizumab), an interleukin (IL)-23 inhibitor, during the 2023 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana.

These moderate to severe plaque psoriasis patients previously had a suboptimal response to treatment with secukinumab (Novartis’ Cosentyx) or ixekizumab (Eli Lilly’s Taltz), both IL-17A inhibitor therapies, for at least six months before switching to risankizumab. The data were presented at a Late-Breaking Research session

Developed as part of a collaboration between the US pharma major and family-owned German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, Skyrizi is already registering blockbuster sales, which reached $5.17 billion in 2020. AbbVie hopes that Skyrizi, along with its JAK inhibitor Rinvoq (upadacitinib), will help compensate for biosimilars erosion of revenues from its mega-blockbuster Humira (adalimumab).