The Impact of Biologic Agents on Psoriasis Therapy

Since early 2003, three biologic agents for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis have become available for clinical use. These include two subcutaneously administered therapies (efalizumab and etanercept) that can be self-injected by patients and an intramuscularly administered therapy (alefacept). It is likely that two more biologic agents, infliximab and adalimumab, will be approved for use in psoriasis in the near future. In the past 18 months, a great deal of research has been conducted on all of these agents, and individual physicians have also acquired important insights into how best to incorporate biologic agents into their clinical practice, how to select psoriasis patients for each biologic agent, what to expect during biologic therapy, and how to optimize clinical outcomes when using these new drugs, either alone or in combination with traditional therapies.