Safety of Apremilast in Patients with Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis: Findings from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink

Introduction This real-world safety analysis was requested by the European Medicines Agency following approval of apremilast, an oral treatment for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. Objective We aimed to compare incidence rates of adverse events of special interest identified a priori, in patients receiving apremilast with those receiving other systemic treatments for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. Methods This 5-year cohort study was conducted in Clinical Practice Research Datalink GOLD between January 2015 and June 2020. Incidence rates of adverse events of special interest were estimated for four matched cohorts: apremilast-exposed and three matched non-apremilast cohorts (oral only, injectable only, and oral and injectable psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis treatments). Results The apremilast-exposed cohort included 341 patients and the three non-apremilast cohorts included 4981 patients. There were no incident cases of vasculitis, hematologic malignancy, non-melanoma skin malignancy, treated depression, treated anxiety, or suicidal behaviors in the apremilast-exposed cohort during the follow-up. Similar incidence rates of all-cause mortality, major adverse cardiac events, tachyarrhythmias, and solid malignancies were recorded in the apremilast and non-apremilast cohorts. The incidence rate (95% confidence interval) per 1000 person-years of opportunistic and serious infections in the apremilast-exposed cohort (64 [40–102])) was similar to incidence rates in the oral (50 [42–60]) and oral and injectable non-apremilast cohorts (57 [47–69]), while the incidence rates were lower in the injectable treatment-only cohort (20 [10–41]). Limitations include small numbers of apremilast-exposed patients and potential exposure misclassification partly owing to missing information on biologic and other specialty treatment use. Conclusions No new apremilast safety signals were identified in this study. These results provide evidence that the long-term safety of apremilast in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in a real-world setting is comparable to that reported in clinical trials.