Comorbidity as a predictor for drug survival of biologic therapy in patients with psoriasis

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Psoriasis often requires lifelong therapy, and adherence to treatment is considered a marker for treatment success. Data on the drug survival of biologics in psoriasis patients with comorbidities are lacking.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objectives</jats:title><jats:p>This study was designed to estimate the long‐term drug survival rates of different biologic agents in a cohort of psoriasis patients and to evaluate reasons and predictors for treatment adherence.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Drug survival rates and outcome parameters in psoriasis patients treated with biologic agents were analyzed.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 125 treatment periods with adalimumab (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 37), efalizumab (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 9), etanercept (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 55), infliximab (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 13), and ustekinumab (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 11) were administered to 67 psoriasis patients. Patients with psoriatic arthritis (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.010) and without comorbidity (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.033) demonstrated significantly greater rates of drug survival.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The overall efficacy of biologic agents is reduced with time. Patients with the comorbidity of metabolic syndrome demonstrate a loss of adherence to biologic treatment.</jats:p></jats:sec>