TOPLINE:

In a retrospective study, switching to bimekizumab after the failure of secondary interleukin (IL)-17 inhibitors demonstrated comparable drug survival to switching to IL-23 inhibitors in patients with psoriasis.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a retrospective evaluation of 127 patients with psoriasis who discontinued an IL-17 inhibitor due to secondary failure and were directly switched to either bimekizumab or an IL-23 inhibitor.
• A total of 38 patients were switched to bimekizumab (intraclass switch), whereas 89 patients were switched to IL-23 inhibitors including guselkumab (n = 26) and risankizumab (n = 63), with IL-23 inhibitors analysed together as one group.
• The primary outcome was drug survival.
• The median follow-up duration was 2.30 years (95% CI, 2.00-2.61) for the bimekizumab group and 3.43 years (95% CI, 3.27-3.92) for the IL-23 inhibitor group.

TAKEAWAY:

• No significant differences in drug survival were observed between bimekizumab and IL-23 inhibitors, with estimates of 94.4% (95% CI, 87.1%-100.0%) vs 92.1% (95% CI, 86.6%-97.9%) at 12 months.
• At 24 months, drug survival estimates were 82.1% (95% CI, 70.0%-96.3%) for bimekizumab vs 88.6% (95% CI, 82.2%-95.5%) for IL-23 inhibitors, demonstrating comparable long-term persistence between the two switching strategies.
• Treatment discontinuation occurred in seven patients on bimekizumab (one recurrent candida infection and six secondary skin failure) and 22 patients on IL-23 inhibitors (three primary skin failure, three worsening psoriatic arthritis, and 16 secondary skin failure).

IN PRACTICE:

"Our findings suggest that intraclass switching to bimekizumab may offer drug survival comparable to interclass switching to IL-23 inhibitors in patients with prior secondary IL-17 inhibitor failure," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Irene Stefanaki, First Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, "Andreas Syngros" Hospital for Skin and Venereal Diseases, Athens, Greece. It was published online on June 16, 2026, in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology & Venereology.

LIMITATIONS:

The design of the study was retrospective and non-randomised, introducing a potential for channelling bias and residual confounding. The relatively unequal group sizes may have limited the statistical power to detect modest differences between the switching options.

DISCLOSURES:

This study did not receive any funding. Nine authors reported receiving honoraria and/or travel grants from AbbVie, Genesis, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Novartis, and various other organisations.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.