Psoriasis: Why Switching to Another Biologic Can Help

Dr. Jaber: Biologics are a new class of psoriasis medications that are really wonder drugs, and they can be life-changing for our patients. They're immune medications, and there's many different types, and they all affect the immune system in different ways. They can take patients that are totally covered in psoriasis and clear them. Some are oral and some are injectable. Some are injected by the doctor, some are injected by each patient. For some patients, one biologic drug might be extremely effective, but, for somebody else, you might want to switch to a different biologic drug. Dr. Shah: Psoriasis medications are commonly switched, and this is because either people are not getting an appropriate treatment response or they're experiencing side effects. Wendy: What ends up happening, unfortunately, for most patients is, after a few years, their biologic will stop working for them, and then they will need to try a new one. Dr. Goldberg: Another reason is some of the newer drugs are simply more effective. Instead of 75 or 50% clear, they can get them 90% clear. There are certain medications now that you only have to do one injection every three months, as opposed to doing it once a week. Dr. Shah: We've been able to tailor the newer biologics to specifically target the immune system aspects that are active in psoriasis. When it comes to switching medications, I think some of the biggest myths are that people sometimes think that they need to stop their current medication, and that creates a little bit of fear. Sometimes we can transition them without a break at all. The other myth is, again, that sometimes the medication is stronger, so they may have more side effects, or they may have more immunosuppression. That's also not always the case, as we may be switching them from a more broad biologic to one that's more specific to psoriasis. Dr. Jaber: Some people are worried that, "Oh, I'm on one drug, I can't switch to another good drug." That's not true. Dr. Strachan: There are so many more options to treat psoriasis now. It's important for patients to be optimistic, if something's not working, to explore what the other options are. Wendy: We're so lucky that there are these new biologics out right now. It's given people a new lease on life.