The problems here are general ones with the way we handle biologics....
About half of Medicare patients who start taking biologic therapies for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis stop within a year, according to a new study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Previous studies have found similar results among the privately insured in the United States. The new study is the first to explore this issue among the elderly and disabled who are covered under Medicare. Lack of data in this population has been a major research gap, given that such patients are often underrepresented in clinical trials.
Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disorder, primarily of the skin. It has been associated with major physical and psychosocial health burdens, which increase proportionally with the severity of the condition. In the past decade, several targeted biologic therapies have been approved for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, greatly increasing the therapeutic options for this skin disorder, which has no cure.
"Such suboptimal patterns of biologic use warrant further investigation, however our findings do suggest that high out-of-pocket costs under Medicare Part D are a potential factor," said first author Jalpa A. Doshi, PhD, an associate professor of Medicine.