From the Popular Press: What Your Patients are Reading:

Two recent studies, both published in the latest issue of The Lancet, show ustekinumab to be an effective treatment for moderate-to-severe psoriasis for initial and long-term treatment. The drug is delivered by injection once every 3 months. For patients who only partially respond to initial treatment with 90 mg every 12 weeks, a step-up dosing of 90 mg every 8 weeks may be necessary. Ustekinumab binds to two proteins (interleukins) produced by the immune system that mediate inflammatory reactions. By binding to the interleukins, ustekinumab prevents the proteins from reaching their receptors on cell surfaces. In one study, two-thirds of patients suffering from moderate-to-severe psoriasis achieved at least a 75% improvement in psoriasis severity after 12 weeks of drug therapy. Maintenance treatment of ustekinumab helped patients retain the results, whereas patients who stopped treatment did not continue to see alleviated symptoms to the same degree. In the second study, patients who did not realize complete results from ustekinumab treatment delivered every 12 weeks were found to react positively to injections at 8-week intervals instead.

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