INFLIXIMAB BIOSIMILAR VERSUS METHOTREXATE FOR THE TREATMENT OF MODERATE TO SEVERE PSORIASIS
MARIA-ISABELA SÂRBU 1#, MIRCEA TAMPA 1,2#, CLARA MATEI 1#*, CRISTINA-IULIA MITRAN 1,2#, MĂDĂLINA-IRINA MITRAN 1,2#, SILVIU PIŢURU 1#, CORINA SILVIA POP 3#, GABRIEL ŞARAMET 1#, SIMONA-ROXANA GEORGESCU 1,2#
1.“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
2.“Victor Babeş” Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Bucharest, Romania
3.Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest, Romania
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Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated condition associated with severe impairment in the patient’s quality of life. A biosimilar is a biological medicine that is highly similar to another already approved biological medicine and is authorized in accordance with the same standards as all biological treatments. In this study we compared the efficacy of infliximab biosimilar to that of methotrexate in patients with plaque type psoriasis. 16 patients treated with infliximab biosimilar and 30 patients treated with methotrexate were included. The severity of the disease was measured using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) at the beginning of the treatment and then at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of patients achieving an improvement of at least 75% in the PASI (PASI 75). At the end of the study we found that the efficacy of infliximab biosimilar, as measured by PASI 75, was significantly higher than the efficacy of methotrexate and the results were noticed from the very first 3 months of treatment.