Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Persistence and adherence to psoriasis treatments reflect overall drug effectiveness, tolerability, and convenience. Limited data are available on the treatment patterns of ixekizumab, an interleukin (IL)-17A antagonist, vs. guselkumab, an IL-23 inhibitor. Our objective was to evaluate real-life psoriasis drug treatment patterns with ixekizumab vs. guselkumab. METHODS: This retrospective observational study used United States insurance claims data from IBM Watson MarketScan Databases to analyze treatment patterns (including adherence, persistence, time on monotherapy, switching, and use of concomitant medications) for patients with 1 year, ≥ 6 months, and up to 30 months of follow-up. Outcomes were compared between ixekizumab and guselkumab on the balanced sample after applying inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). RESULTS: Data for 1414 eligible patients (ixekizumab, N = 674 and guselkumab, N = 740) were assessed. Over the 1-year follow-up, adherence was greater for ixekizumab vs. guselkumab when evaluated by proportion of days covered ≥ 80% [odds ratio (OR) 1.77 (95% confidence interval, 1.41, 2.21), p < 0.001] and by medication possession ratio ≥ 80% [OR = 1.92 (1.54, 2.38), p < 0.001]. Persistence was longer for ixekizumab vs. guselkumab with a 60-day allowable gap [non-persistence hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval): 0.80 (0.69, 0.93), p = 0.005], but there were no differences with a 90-day allowable gap [HR = 0.98 (0.83, 1.17), p = 0.850]. Results assessed in patients with ≥ 6 months follow-up confirmed these findings. This retrospective analysis of a United States claims database used prescription refill data to estimate persistence/adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Based on real-world evidence using claims data, patients with psoriasis treated with ixekizumab had a greater adherence to and an equal or greater persistence with therapy vs. patients treated with guselkumab.