Dr Edward W. Cowen on Unmet Needs, Care Considerations Regarding Pustular Psoriasis

Multicenter trials and patient registries should be considered to improve comprehension of pustular psoriasis, as well as efforts to identify what treatment would be best suited to each patient with this rare disease, said Edward W. Cowen, MD, MHSc, senior clinician and acting branch chief, Dermatology Branch, National Institutes of Health.

Cowen is the author of a recent editorial published in JAMA Dermatology, titled “It Is Time to Focus on Pustular Psoriasis.”

Transcript

What are some short-term and long-term strategies to address unmet needs among patients with pustular psoriasis?

Ideally, patients with pustular psoriasis should seek out a clinical trial to help determine what agent is going to be best suited for their disease. Multicenter trials are more costly and more challenging from an administrative standpoint, but these are probably going to offer us a better chance of recruiting for this rare disease.

Patient registries are another important avenue. They help us identify potential patients for future trials, and they also help us understand the natural history of the disease over a longer period of time.

What are some future considerations for payers, providers, and any other physicians managing the care of patients with pustular psoriasis?

As newer agents become available, including the interleukin-36 inhibitors for pustular psoriasis, it will really be in everyone's best interest to know when these interventions are best suited for a given patient based on the type of psoriasis they have and whether or not it's localized or generalized disease. So, more options are coming but we really need to know in which settings each of these specific agents is best suited.