Safety and Tolerability of 60 Weeks' Extended Efalizumab Therapy in Patients with Chronic Moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis

• Published in: Psoriasis forum 2007-06, Vol.13a (1), p.28-33
• Main Authors: Gottlieb, Alice B., Hamilton, Tiffani K., Caro, Ivor, Compton, Peter, Leonardi, Craig L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1089-3504; 1557-3168
• DOI: 10.1177/247553030713a00105

The chronic nature of psoriasis calls for long-term maintenance of control; thus, it is important to understand the long-term safety profile of effective therapies. We present long-term safety data for the T-cell inhibitor efalizumab in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. To further assess the safety profile of efalizumab over extended therapy periods, we evaluated pooled results from 1,004 patients enrolled in two studies where patients were to be treated for 60 weeks. The most frequently observed adverse events (AEs) were acute-type AEs, predefined as headache, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting and myalgia occurring within 48 hours of efalizumab dosing. The rate of infection was comparable to rates reported in other efalizumab trials. The most common infections were colds and upper respiratory tract infections. The incidence of malignancy was