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Researchers have designed a new resource for prescribing biologics to patients with psoriasis.

The report covers TNF-α inhibitors, as well as IL-12, IL-17, and IL-23 inhibitors. The review appears in .

Co-author Jeffrey Cohen, MD, assistant professor of dermatology with Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, discussed the report with the Reading Room. The exchange has been edited for length and clarity.

Why this review -- and why now?

Cohen: This paper is an up-to-date overview of all biologics available to treat psoriasis in 2024. It is intended for clinicians who are looking for a good overview of psoriasis medications or for information on pivotal clinical trials for these medications. Instead of needing to go back to the literature to find all these details piecemeal for themselves, they can simply refer to this review.

Is this review intended to help prescribers prescribe biologics with more confidence when appropriate?

Cohen: Undertreatment of psoriasis in the U.S. is definitely a problem, and there are a lot of patients out there who would benefit from biologics but do not get them. A lot of that is because there is an inconsistent willingness to prescribe biologics.

What do you see as the reasons for this inconsistency?

Cohen: Number one, not all physicians feel comfortable with biologics. And not all physicians feel comfortable with the lab monitoring. I think some worry that they are not safe even though the evidence points to these biologics being quite safe if they're used appropriately.

Secondly, patients may be reluctant. I think sometimes those two things come together to produce a situation in which patients do not get the treatment.

What is your bottom-line message for physicians regarding this topic and paper?

Cohen: We definitely want to make everybody feels comfortable prescribing these drugs when it's appropriate to do so. We hope that our review will serve as a resource that clinicians can look at and feel comfortable with. They can use it to make decisions about what medication they may want to try with a certain patient, or they can read it to learn more about the details of the medications so that they feel comfortable prescribing these drugs.