Effectiveness and safety of deucravacitinib treatment for moderate-to-severe psoriasis in real-world clinical practice in Japan

Background: Deucravacitinib is a selective oral tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor recently approved for psoriasis.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and safety of deucravacitinib for psoriasis.

Methods: We analyzed 33 Japanese patients with psoriasis (23 with plaque psoriasis, eight with psoriatic arthritis, and two with erythrodermic psoriasis) from January 2023 to October 2023. All patients received deucravacitinib 6 mg daily until week 16.

Results: At week 8, 12, or 16, the achievement rate of PASI 75 was 60.9%, 73.9%, or 78.3%, that of PASI 90 was 13.0%, 39.1%, or 52.2%, that of PASI 100 was 0%, 8.7%, or 13.0%, that of absolute PASI ≤2 was 34.8%, 65.2%, or 78.3%, respectively. The achievement rate of dermatology life quality index 0/1 at week 16 was 42.9%. Fourteen patients (42%) complained pruritus. Peak pruritus-numerical rating scale in patients with pruritus decreased by median [interquartile] 71.4 [50-80] % of baseline at week 2. Adverse events occurred in 18.2% of patients, which were mild and manageable.

Conclusions: Deucravacitinib for patients with psoriasis was well-tolerated and gave favorable therapeutic effects in the real-world practice. Deucravacitinib treatment rapidly reduced pruritus.