TOPLINE:
More gastrointestinal and nervous symptom adverse events (AEs) are linked to apremilast than deucravacitinib, which is associated with more cutaneous AEs, according to a retrospective comparison using US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data.
METHODOLOGY:
- To evaluate the adverse events associated with apremilast, an oral phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor, and deucravacitinib, an oral tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor, data were drawn from the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database.
- The Medex_UIMA_1.8.3 system was used to standardize drug names, and MedDRA terminology was used to encode, categorize, and localize signals.
- AE event signals were grouped by skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, infections and infestations, and nervous system disorders.
TAKEAWAY:
- There were 95,734 AE reports for apremilast and 760 AE reports for deucravacitinib, and AEs were found to be significant over time.
- The more common cutaneous AEs were psoriasis recurrence and acne (associated with apremilast) and skin burning and erythema (associated with deucravacitinib).
- The more common gastrointestinal AEs were diarrhea and nausea (apremilast) and mouth ulceration (deucravacitinib).
- Deucravacitinib-related pruritus and rash, as well as apremilast-related tension headache, were more common in women than men; deucravacitinib-related skin burning was more common in men.
IN PRACTICE:
The results "can help the doctors to choose the right treatment options based on the baseline characteristics of different patients," said Yuanyuan Xu, a graduate student in the Department of Dermatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
SOURCE:
Xu presented the study as a poster at the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis 2024 annual meeting.
LIMITATIONS:
The study was retrospective and cannot prove causality and there were far fewer AE reports related to deucravacitinib, likely because the drug was introduced more recently.
DISCLOSURES:
The study received no funding, and the authors had no relevant financial disclosures.