Five-year Maintenance of Clinical Response and Consistent Safety Profile for Guselkumab in Asian patients with Psoriasis from VOYAGE 1 and VOYAGE 2

Psoriasis—a long-term condition that causes a skin rash with scaly, itchy patches (plaques)—is becoming more prevalent in Asia. To control symptoms of moderate-to-severe psoriasis and achieve a strong improvement in the patient’s quality of life, continuous treatment is usually needed. Guselkumab is a medicine that targets specific parts of the immune system to treat moderate-to-severe psoriasis. It is important to understand the long-term benefits of guselkumab in Asian patient populations. Our study analyzed the data from two randomized clinical trials (called VOYAGE 1 and VOYAGE 2) that studied people with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. We examined results for the 199 people from Asia, including Korea and Taiwan, who took part in these studies. Overall, 162 of the 184 (86.6%) people from Asia treated with guselkumab incorporated into these studies continued the treatment for 5 years. Patients treated with guselkumab showed effective clinical responses (improvements measured by clinicians), including high skin clearance, meaning a large reduction in skin surface area affected by psoriasis. On guselkumab, patients also reported improvements in their skin-related health-related quality of life. These improvements and the efficacy of guselkumab were maintained over 5 years of follow-up. The safety results for guselkumab in the Asian subpopulation were similar to those for the global population, showing low rates of serious adverse effects, as expected from this type of medicine. Overall, our study found a favorable benefit–risk profile with continuous guselkumab treatment for 5 years in Asian people with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. This highlights that guselkumab treatment allows long-lasting control of this disease.