Vibeke Strand, MD, on the Success of Secukinumab for Psoriatic Arthritis

In an interview with HCPLive®, Vibeke Strand, MD, MACR, FACP, Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, Stanford University, discussed her study on the effect of secukinumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

The Phase 3 data displayed clinical and radiographical efficacy. Patients reported significantly sustained improvements across all dose levels compared with placebo.

This study included patients who were naive to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor, as well as patients who were TNF-inadequate or TNF-incomplete responders.

Strand explained that patients who have been heavily treated, who are TNF-incomplete responders, might appear less improved because their scores were lower at baseline compared to patients who were TNF-naive. However, they actually reported very similar amounts of improvement.

"If you account for the fact that they're starting with lower scores because they've had the disease for longer, and they've had more failed treatments, what you can see is that actually, they're able to respond as well as a naive population," Strand said. "It's just that the baseline scores are lower."