The Future of Plaque Psoriasis Treatment Over the Next 3 to 5 Years

In this episode, ‘The Future of Plaque Psoriasis Treatment Over the Next 3 to 5 Years,’ the panelists, both practicing in dermatology, explore what lies ahead for the field.

Andrew Mastro, MS, PA-C, closes out this stretch of the conversation by asking Alexa Hetzel, MS, PA-C, to look three to five years ahead and describe how she expects the plaque psoriasis treatment paradigm to evolve. Hetzel says her hope is straightforward: that every patient who needs advanced systemic or biologic therapy is actually on it, an outcome she believes depends on continued clinician education translating into better patient education down the line.

She notes there is still meaningful activity in the pipeline, including potential oral options and biologics dosed as infrequently as every six months or once a year, depending on how efficacy data develops. Hetzel frames that pipeline as good news for patients who will be managing this disease for life, since more mechanisms and dosing formats give clinicians a more customizable approach for each individual. She also points out that she and Mastro, despite both treating psoriasis extensively, do not necessarily follow identical treatment algorithms, which she sees as evidence that having a range of options benefits the field rather than complicating it.

Mastro builds on that point, describing the growing menu of therapies as reason for clinicians to stay current on the literature and maintain fluency across mechanisms, since patients increasingly arrive at appointments having already researched their options themselves. He describes the field as a constantly evolving array of choices that requires ongoing effort from providers to track, comparing it to a smorgasbord that keeps expanding rather than settling into a fixed set of options.

Hetzel agrees and adds a final piece to the future outlook: access. Even as the range of effective therapies grows, she says ensuring patients can actually obtain the medicine they need remains the last, and arguably most persistent, barrier to translating better treatment options into better outcomes. A wider menu of oral and injectable choices does little for a patient who cannot get in the door or secure coverage for the agent that fits them best, which is why she views access, alongside continued clinician and patient education, as the piece the field still needs to solve as the treatment landscape keeps expanding over the next several years.

In the next episode, ‘Access Gaps and Treatment Failure in Plaque Psoriasis Care,’ the panelists address lingering barriers to access and how to distinguish primary from secondary treatment failure.