Risankizumab provides long term benefits in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who have not achieved adequate response to previous therapies, according to a study published in Rheumatology. Andrew Östör, MD, and colleagues evaluated the 52-week efficacy and safety of Risankizumab in patients with active PsA who had previous inadequate response/ intolerance to one or two biologic therapies or one or more conventional, synthetic, disease-modifying, antirheumatic drugs. Patients were randomly assigned to Risankizumab or placebo at weeks 0, 4, and 16, with all patients receiving Risankizumab every 12 weeks from weeks 28 to 208. At week 24, 51.3% of Risankizumab-treated patients (N=224) achieved at least 20%
improvement in American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR20) versus 26.5% of placebo-treated patients (N=220). ACR20 was achieved at week 52 by 58.5% of patients on continuous Risankizumab versus 55.7% of
patients who switched from placebo to Risankizumab at week 24. Other efficacy measures showed similar trends. Through week 52, rates of serious treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and TEAEs leading to discontinuation remained stable, with no deaths reported.
