Robert Bissonnette, MD: Safety Profile, Future Research on New Oral IL-23 Inhibitor for Psoriasis

Robert Bissonnette, MD, Chief Executive Officer and medical director of Innovaderm Research, spoke with the HCPLive team spoke about the safety profile of a new investigational, oral peptide inhibitor known as JNJ-2113 for psoriasis, as well as the drug’s future research and potential as an oral option.

Bissonnette was asked about JNJ-2113’s potential to improve patient adherence due to its oral formulation, as well as strategies that clinicians could employ to maximize compliance and efficacy.

“I think the big difference is that we'll be able to offer patients if results of that phase two study or confirmed interest, we'll be able to offer patients very officious and select their products, both oral and subcutaneous,” Bissonnette said. “So I think the best way to do this is, in terms of if the safety and efficacy is similar, we have an oral option and an injectable option that we should have that patients decide. And for those that have apprehension about injection, we might go oral and the compliance might be higher.”

He added that if patients prefer a single injection every 3 months, rather than a pill, this would also work. The point, Bissonnette stated, is that dermatologists will have the flexibility to offer patients which option they prefer.

“From a safety perspective, the data that we've seen from that study was very good,” Bissonnette explained. “The most frequent adverse events are those that were observed, or those that you would expect in clinical studies conducted at that time, so COVID-19 and nasopharyngitis are the 2 main types of adverse events that were observed. “There were a few patients who had GI risk events, nausea type, but there was no dose relationship with that adverse event. This is given orally. It's possibly a difference that is not related to the medication, but phase 2 will give us more information about that.”

Bissonnette was later asked, considering the diverse patient population affected by psoriasis and including those with comorbidities or specific demographic characteristics, how might the use of JNJ-2113 be tailored to meet individual patient needs.

“Unfortunately, the data is not there yet,” Bissonnette said. “So currently, there is a large PHP program that started last fall and in that program, there are studies that are geared towards patients who have a certain type of psoriasis. So we don't have enough information from the phase 2b studies in enough patients with this type of involvement. But in the phase 3 program, the company will be looking specifically at patients with…palmoplantar psoriasis, patients with genital psoriasis will also be studied, and patients with scalp psoriasis will also be studied.”

For more on the topline data explored by Bissonnette’s team, view the interview video posted above.

The quotes in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.