Efficacy and Safety of Apremilast Monoth

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CMSXXX10.1177/1203475418755982Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and SurgeryIghani et al

Original Article

Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery


1–7
Efficacy and Safety of Apremilast © The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1203475418755982
https://doi.org/10.1177/1203475418755982

Psoriasis: Retrospective Study jcms.sagepub.com

Arvin Ighani1 , Jorge R. Georgakopoulos2, Linda L. Zhou3,


Scott Walsh4, Neil Shear4 , and Jensen Yeung4

Abstract
Background: Apremilast is a new oral drug for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis that reduces
inflammation by inhibiting phosphodiesterase 4. Its efficacy and safety data are limited; hence, real-world outcomes are
important for elucidating the full spectrum of its adverse events (AEs) and expanding generalizability of clinical trial findings.
Objective: Assess the efficacy and safety of apremilast monotherapy in real-world practice.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted in 2 academic dermatology practices. Efficacy was measured as the
proportion of patients achieving a ≥75% reduction from baseline Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI-75) or a
Psoriasis Global Assessment (PGA) score of 0 (clear) or 1 (almost clear) at 16 weeks. Safety was measured as the proportion
of patients reporting ≥1 AE at 16 weeks.
Results: Thirty-four patients were included. Efficacy: 19 patients (55.9%) achieved PASI-75 or PGA 0/1. Safety: 23 patients
(67.6%) experienced ≥1 AEs. Five patients (14.7%) withdrew treatment prior to week 16 due to AEs. One patient withdrew
treatment due to mood lability and depression. Common AEs included headache (32.4%), nausea (20.6%), diarrhoea (14.7%),
weight loss (8.8%), and loose stool (8.8%).
Conclusion: Apremilast monotherapy had higher efficacy with similar safety outcomes in the real world compared to clinical
trials. There were higher proportions of reported headaches compared to clinical trials. This study supports the apremilast
monotherapy clinical trial findings, suggesting that it has an acceptable safety profile and significantly reduces the severity of
moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Limitations include the retrospective nature of the study.

Keywords
apremilast, monotherapy, plaque psoriasis, phosphodiesterase inhibitor, clinical practice

Psoriasis is a chronic, autoinflammatory skin condition with Biologic agents are undeniably efficacious in the treat-
a worldwide prevalence of 0.9% to 8.5% in adults and one of ment of psoriasis.12 Nevertheless, 3 recent surveys demon-
the most frequently encountered skin diseases in clinical strated that patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis
practice.1,2 Numerous subtypes of psoriasis exist, with the discontinued treatment with currently available biologics
most common being plaque psoriasis.3 Psoriasis is strongly and conventional systemic therapies due to overwhelming
associated with psychological morbidity and a low quality of monitoring regimens, fear of injections, inability to tolerate
life, with almost one-fourth of patients identifying it as hav- their medications, and lack of efficacy.13-15 Hence there is a
ing a significant negative impact on their lives.4,5 need to develop novel therapeutic agents in the treatment of
There is no cure for psoriasis, but therapies exist to reduce
its signs and symptoms, including topical agents, nonbiologic
systemic agents, phototherapy, and biologic agents.6-8 1
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
2
However, these therapies have shortcomings that limit patient Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London,
treatment options. For instance, approved conventional sys- ON, Canada
3
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
temic therapies like methotrexate, acitretin, and cyclosporine 4
Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of
are associated with severe adverse events, including hepato- Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
toxicity, nephrotoxicity, and leukocytopenia.9-11 Often, 1 or
Corresponding Author:
more of these systemic agents are prescribed to patients Jensen Yeung, Department of Dermatology, Women’s College Hospital,
before more advanced therapies, like biologic agents, are 76 Grenville St, Fifth Floor, Toronto, ON M5S 1B2, Canada.
reimbursed by private and public payers. Email: jensen.yeung@utoronto.ca
2 Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery 00(0)

psoriasis that are efficacious, are safe, and address these Assessment (PGA) score of 0 (clear) or 1 (almost clear) at
shortcomings. week 16 of treatment. The PGA was ranked using a 6-point
Apremilast (tradename Otezla; Celgene Corporation, Likert scale, ranging from 0 to 5, with higher scores reflect-
Summit, New Jersey) is a novel oral agent that was approved ing more significant psoriasis. In instances where PASI-75 or
in November 2014 in Canada for the treatment of moderate to PGA scores were not documented, 2 independent reviewers
severe plaque psoriasis. It is a phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) assigned PGA scores based on the chart description of pso-
inhibitor that modulates inflammatory signalling pathways riasis lesions.
believed to play a central role in the development of the
disease.16 Two pivotal phase III clinical trials, ESTEEM 1
Safety
and ESTEEM 2, demonstrated that it had an acceptable safety
profile and significantly reduced the severity of moderate to The primary outcome for assessing the safety of apremilast
severe plaque psoriasis.17,18 Common adverse events reported was the proportion of patients experiencing 1 or more
in the clinical trials were diarrhoea, upper respiratory tract adverse events during the first 16 weeks of treatment. The
infection (URTI), nausea, nasopharyngitis, and headache. secondary outcome for assessing safety was the proportion
However, analysis of this treatment in the real-world setting of patients who discontinued apremilast due to adverse
as a monotherapy for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis is events prior to week 16. A serious adverse event was
limited, and there are very scant data on the topic of real- defined as any event that was life-threatening, was fatal,
world outcomes of apremilast. Furthermore, patient selection required hospitalization, or resulted in a persistent or sig-
in clinical trials is often biased toward healthy individuals and nificant lack of function, capacity, or other medical hazard.
does not reflect the general patient population in real-world Otherwise, the adverse event was considered mild to mod-
practice who may have comorbidities, including various can- erate. All adverse events listed in the patient chart were
cers, psychiatric disease, and infections such as hepatitis C. recorded.
This study aims to analyse the safety and efficacy of apre-
milast in 2 real-world academic dermatology centres at the
Data Analysis
University of Toronto to evaluate the generalizability of its
clinical trial results. Descriptive statistics were conducted to summarize efficacy
and safety end points using SPSS Statistics for Macintosh,
version 23 (SPSS, Inc, an IBM Company, Chicago, Illinois).
Patients and Methods Quantitative variables were analysed using means and stan-
Study Design dard deviations, and categorical variables were analysed
using frequencies and percentages. Binary logistic regres-
A retrospective chart review was conducted on patients pre- sion was conducted to assess the influence of variables on
scribed apremilast at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre the responder outcome of patients. P values ≤.05 were con-
(SHSC) and Women’s College Hospital (WCH), which are sidered statistically significant.
affiliated with the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. Data collection was undertaken between May 2016
and September 2016 following research ethics board Results
approval and completion of a data transfer agreement at both
SHSC and WCH.
Population Demographics
Patients 18 years or older receiving at least 16 weeks of Fifty-two patients were screened and prescribed 30 mg of
apremilast monotherapy for the treatment of moderate to oral apremilast twice daily after graduated introductory
severe plaque psoriasis were included in this study. Patients dosing (0/10, 10/10, 20/10, 20/20, and 30/20) over 5 days
who withdrew treatment prior to week 16 due to an adverse and then 30/30 dosing as per the product monograph.
event or lack of efficacy were also included, but they were Follow-up visits were scheduled for approximately 4
considered nonresponders. Monotherapy was defined as months after the initial dose was prescribed. Patients were
usage of apremilast without any concurrent systemic treat- followed up as needed in instances where adverse events
ment for their psoriasis. Patients were permitted to use topi- were reported.
cal agents with their apremilast treatment. Of the 52 patients screened, 34 were included in the study
(Figure 1). Eighteen patients were excluded from the analy-
sis: 11 with no follow-up data, 3 lacking PGA or PASI-75
Efficacy score documentation, 3 not having plaque psoriasis, and 1
The primary efficacy end point was the proportion of patients who was clear of psoriasis at baseline. There were no cases
achieving at least 75% improvement in their Psoriasis Area of dose changes or restarts in the 34 patients included for
and Severity Index score (PASI-75) or a Psoriasis Global analysis.
Ighani et al 3

Figure 1. Flowchart depicting the screening and selection process of the study cohort based on inclusion criteria.

The cohort had a mean age of 53.5 ± 12.7 years at the Safety
start of treatment and comprised 20 men (58.8%) and 14
women (41.2%) (Table 1). The mean disease duration prior Of the 34 patients analysed, 23 (67.6%) reported 1 or more
to the first apremilast dose was 20 ± 13.5 years. Common adverse events (Table 2). A total of 5 patients (14.7%) with-
comorbidities in this cohort included arthritis (32.4%), drew treatment due to adverse events: headaches (n = 1),
hypertension (17.6%), dyslipidemia (17.6%), and fatty liver diarrhoea (n = 1), mood lability with depression (n = 1), nau-
disease (14.7%). The most commonly failed therapies prior sea with loose stool (n = 1), and a combination of headaches,
to apremilast treatment included phototherapy (67.6%), dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea (n = 1).
methotrexate (47.1%), and acitretin (35.3%). On average, The most frequent adverse events included headache (n =
patients failed 1.7 ± 1.3 nontopical therapies before starting 11, 32.4%), nausea (n = 7, 20.6%), diarrhoea (n = 5, 14.7%),
apremilast. weight loss (n = 3, 8.8%), and loose stool (n = 3, 8.8%) (Table
2). Some patients reported more than 1 adverse event, with an
average of 1.5 ± 1.5 adverse events reported per patient. No
Efficacy serious or severe adverse events were reported. There was 1
Of the 34 patients analysed, 19 (55.9%) achieved PASI-75 or incidence of depression (2.9%), and this patient discontinued
a PGA of 0 or 1 at week 16 (Table 2). One patient (2.9%) treatment. It was unclear if this patient had a prior history of
withdrew treatment before the 16-week period due to lack of depressive symptoms prior to starting apremilast.
efficacy. The mean PASI-75 score was 13.1 ± 6.3 at baseline
(collected from n = 18) and 3.9 ± 5.4 after 16 weeks of treat-
ment (collected from n = 8).
Discussion
Binary logistic regression determined that none of the We report the findings of a retrospective study evaluating the
variables analysed were statistically significant predictors of efficacy and safety of apremilast monotherapy in the treatment
treatment response, including sex (P = .901) and age (P = of 34 patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis at 2
.726). However, the number of previously failed nontopical academic clinics in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In this cohort,
therapies (P = .067) and comorbid fatty liver disease (P = 55.9% of patients responded to treatment, achieving clinically
.080) trended inversely with response outcome. significant clearance of psoriasis following 16 weeks of
4 Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery 00(0)

Table 1. Population Demographics and Characteristics of the Table 2. Efficacy and Safety Outcomes (n = 34).
Study Cohort (n = 34).
Variable Value
Variable Value P Value
Efficacy end point, No. (%)
Sex, No. (%) .901 PASI-75 or PGA 0/1 at week 16 19/34 (55.9)
Male 20/34 (58.8) Baseline PASI-75, mean ± SD 13.1 ± 6.3
Female 14/34 (41.2) 16-week PASI-75, mean ± SD 3.9 ± 5.4
Age, mean ± SD, y .726 Safety end point, No. (%)
Mean age 53.5 ± 12.7 ≥1 AEs 23 (67.6)
Age at time of diagnosis 33.5 ± 15.3 Treatment withdrawal before 5 (14.7)
Disease duration, mean ± SD, y 20 ± 13.5 week 16 due to AE, No. (%)
Comorbidities, No. (%) Headache 1 (2.9)
Arthritis 11 (32.4) .336 Diarrhoea 1 (2.9)
Hypertension 6 (17.6) .136 Mood lability, depression 1 (2.9)
Dyslipidemia 6 (17.6) .749 Nausea, loose stool 1 (2.9)
Fatty liver disease 5 (14.7) .080 Headache, dizziness, nausea, 1 (2.9)
Renal disease 3 (8.8) .410 vomiting, diarrhoea
Diabetes 3 (8.8) .410 Reported AEs, No. (%)
Depression 3 (8.8) .694 Headache 11 (32.4)
Fibromyalgia 3 (8.8) .410 Nausea 7 (20.6)
Gastroesophageal reflux 3 (8.8) .694 Diarrhoea 5 (14.7)
disease Weight loss 3 (8.8)
Hypothyroidism 3 (8.8) .410 Loose stool 3 (8.8)
Anaemia 2 (5.9) .101 Dizziness 2 (5.9)
Back pain 2 (5.9) .101 Abdominal pain 2 (5.9)
Hepatitis C 2 (5.9) .195 Arthralgia 2 (5.9)
Breast cancer history 2 (5.9) .863 Vomiting 1 (2.9)
Psychiatric disorders 2 (5.9) .195 Sunburn 1 (2.9)
(unspecified) Palpitations 1 (2.9)
Previously failed nontopical .067 Mood lability 1 (2.9)
therapies, No. (%) Migraine 1 (2.9)
0 3 (8.8) Iritis 1 (2.9)
1 15 (44.1) Insomnia 1 (2.9)
2 11 (32.4) Increased bowel movements 1 (2.9)
3 1 (2.9) Gastrointestinal upset 1 (2.9)
≥4 4 (11.8) Flatulence 1 (2.9)
Number of previously failed 1.7 ± 1.3 Disturbed sleep 1 (2.9)
therapies, mean ± SD Disorientation 1 (2.9)
Failed therapies prior to apremilast first dose, No. (%) Depression 1 (2.9)
Phototherapy 23 (67.6) Blurred vision 1 (2.9)
Methotrexate 16 (47.1) Bloating 1 (2.9)
Acitretin 12 (35.3) Back pain 1 (2.9)
Etanercept 3 (8.8) Reported AEs per patient, No. (%)
Infliximab 3 (8.8) 0 11 (32.4)
Cyclosporine 1 (2.9) 1 10 (29.4)
Adalimumab 1 (2.9) 2 5 (14.7)
Prior systemic therapy 22 (64.7) 3 3 (8.8)
(conventional and/or ≥4 5 (14.7)
biologics), No. (%)
Mean ± SD 1.5 ± 1.5
Prior conventional systemic 21 (61.8)
therapy, No. (%) Abbreviations: AE, adverse event; PASI-75, ≥75% reduction from baseline
Prior biologic therapy, No. (%) 4 (11.8) Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI-75); PGA, Psoriasis Global
Assessment; SD, standard deviation.
Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

due to adverse events during the first 16 weeks of treatment.


treatment. A total of 67.6% of patients reported 1 or more Overall, these findings support the results of the landmark
adverse events, and 14.7% of patients withdrew apremilast phase III ESTEEM clinical trials on apremilast, suggesting
Ighani et al 5

that it has an acceptable safety profile and significantly reduces reported proportion far outweighs the sum of both headaches
the severity of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis over 16 and tension headaches in clinical trials. The higher propor-
weeks.17,18 tion in real-world practice could be due to patient recall bias
In terms of population demographics, the mean age of and subsequent overreporting. Patients were informed of
patients in our study (53.5 ± 12.7 years) was greater than potential side effects prior to starting treatment, and it may
ESTEEM 1 (45.8 ± 13.1 years) and ESTEEM 2 (45.3 ± 13.1 have influenced their adverse event reporting during follow-
years), and the proportion of males in our study (58.8%) was up. There were no reports of nasopharyngitis or URTIs in our
lower than in clinical trials (64.2%-67.4%).17,18 At the outset cohort compared to 7.3% to 7.4% reporting nasopharyngitis
of apremilast therapy, the mean baseline PASI-75 score of and 4.8% to 10.2% reporting URTIs in clinical trials.
our cohort (13.1 ± 6.3) was also lower compared to those Common adverse events such as URTI and nasopharyngitis
seen in ESTEEM 1 (18.7 ± 7.2) and ESTEEM 2 (18.9 ± 7.1). were not actively elicited or recorded in the academic clinics
The use of prior systemic and biologic therapies in our study of this study, and this may explain why there were no such
varied greatly compared to the clinical trials. While 11.8% of reports. No routine laboratory values were recorded in real-
our patients previously used biologic therapy, 28.8% to world practice as monitoring is not indicated in the product
33.6% of patients in the clinical trials previously failed using monograph.19
biologics. Conversely, 61.8% of our patients had prior con- In terms of withdrawals, 14.7% of patients withdrew
ventional systemic therapy compared to only 37.7% to 38.7% treatment due to adverse events prior to 16 weeks, whereas
in clinical trials. only 5.2% to 5.5% of patients in the clinical trials withdrew
When comparing efficacy, this study reports 55.9% of in the same period. Clinical trial medication adherence is fre-
patients as responders, whereas the ESTEEM trials reported quently higher than real-world adherence and could explain
between 28.8% and 33.1% as responders.17,18 The greater the higher proportion of withdrawals.20 This may be in part
proportion of responders in this study may partly be a result because patients enrolled in clinical trials might lack insur-
of patients being permitted to use any grade of topical ther- ance coverage and do not have options to switch to alterna-
apy at any point in their apremilast therapy to treat their pso- tive therapies. Furthermore, patients enrolled in clinical trials
riasis. This is in contrast to the ESTEEM clinical trials in may demonstrate higher medication adherence because of
which patients were restricted in terms of their use of topical more frequent clinical visits.21 Notably, there was 1 patient
therapies; choice of topical corticosteroids was limited to who reported depression with mood lability while taking
weak or low-potency strength (class 6 or 7), and they were apremilast and ultimately discontinued treatment. However,
not permitted to be applied within 24 hours of a clinic we were uncertain whether this patient had symptoms of
visit.17,18 In addition, this study defined the primary outcome depression prior to the start of apremilast. In ESTEEM 1 and
of clinically significant clearance as PASI-75 or PGA 0 or 1, 2, rates of depression were slightly higher in the treatment
whereas the ESTEEM clinical trials adhered to a more strin- group compared to the placebo group during the first 16
gent primary outcome of PASI-75 response. This might have weeks of treatment.17,18
contributed to a greater number of patients identified as The LIBERATE study, a phase IIIb randomized con-
responders in this study compared to clinical trials. trolled trial, also measured apremilast outcomes at 16 weeks
Interestingly, the number of previously failed nontopical but included only adult patients with chronic plaque psoria-
therapies (P = .067) and comorbid fatty liver disease (P = sis who had no prior exposure to biologic therapies (n =
.080) trended inversely with response outcome. 83).22 Accordingly, the population demographics of this trial
In regards to safety, 67.6% of patients reported 1 or more resembled those of our real-world cohort, since few of our
adverse events compared to 68.0% to 69.3% of patients in the patients (11.8%) had prior biologic exposure as well. Other
clinical trials. Many of the common adverse events reported baseline demographics were comparable to our study, includ-
in this chart review, such as diarrhoea and nausea, were shown ing sex distribution (LIBERATE: 59.0% male; real world:
in comparable proportions in the clinical trials. In this cohort, 58.8% male) and baseline duration of psoriasis (LIBERATE:
20.6% reported nausea and 14.7% reported diarrhoea com- 19.7 ± 12.7 years; real world: 20.0 ± 13.5 years). In the
pared to 15.7% to 18.4% and 15.8% to 18.8% in clinical trials LIBERATE trial, 39.8% of patients achieved PASI-75 by
reporting nausea and diarrhoea, respectively.17,18 A total of week 16, compared to 55.9% achieving PASI-75 or PGA 0/1
8.8% of patients also reported weight loss within 16 weeks in in our study. Like the ESTEEM trials, the higher proportion
our study. Weight loss is a well-known adverse event of apre- of real-world response rates may be explained by our defini-
milast in long-term 52-week therapy, but short-term 16-week tion of a successful response, which encompassed both
weight loss data were not reported in the clinical trials for PASI-75 and PGA 0/1 instead of PASI-75 alone.
comparison. In terms of safety, ≥1 adverse events were reported in
Our results indicate that 32.4% of patients reported head- similar proportions of LIBERATE patients (71.1%) and real-
aches compared to 5.5% to 6.3% reporting headaches and world patients (67.6%).22 Most adverse events (≥95%) were
7.3% to 7.4% reporting tension headaches in clinical trials. mild to moderate in severity in the LIBERATE trial, and this
Although headaches were broadly defined in this study, our paralleled our real-world study, which had no reports of
6 Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery 00(0)

serious or severe adverse events. Common adverse events article: Jensen Yeung has been a speaker and/or consultant and/or
were typically reported in greater proportions for our real- investigator for AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, Astellas, Boehringer
world patients: headache (LIBERATE: 13.3%; real world: Ingelheim, Celgene, Centocor, Coherus, Dermira, Forward,
32.4%), nausea (LIBERATE: 10.8%; real world: 20.6%), Galderma, Janssen, Leo, Lilly, Medimmune, Merck, Novartis,
Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi-Genzyme, Sun Pharma, Takeda,
and diarrhoea (LIBERATE: 10.8%; real world: 14.7%).
and Valeant. Neil Shear has been a consultant and/or speaker for
Although the LIBERATE study also reported URTI (7.2%)
AbbVie, Actelion, Amgen, Celgene, Hospira, Janssen, Janssen
and nasopharyngitis (4.8%) amongst their most frequent Biotech, Lilly, Novartis, Sanofi, Genzyme, and Takeda. Scott
adverse events, we had no such reports because these adverse Walsh has been a consultant for AbbVie, Amgen, Celgene, Janssen,
events were not actively elicited in our study. Expectedly, the and Lilly. Jorge R. Georgakopoulos, Arvin Ighani, and Linda L.
proportion of withdrawals due to adverse events was greater Zhou have no conflicts of interest to declare.
in real-world practice (14.7%) compared to the LIBERATE
trial (3.6%). Funding
Overall, our study is one of the very few to evaluate the The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
real-world safety and efficacy data of apremilast monother- for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We
apy for plaque psoriasis. These findings complement a recent acknowledge the Canadian Association of Psoriasis Patients and the
retrospective review, performed by some of our coauthors, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Musculoskeletal
that evaluated apremilast combination therapy with conven- Health and Arthritis) for supporting this project.
tional systemic and biologic agents and found clinically sig-
nificant improvement of plaque psoriasis in all therapeutic ORCID iDs
subgroups.23 The results of this study have also been found to Arvin Ighani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2164-3609
be generally consistent with the results of another recent ret- Neil Shear https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9151-1145
rospective review that evaluated the long-term use of apre-
milast therapy in various subtypes of psoriasis.24 In their References
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