Risankizumab: an anti-IL-23 antibody for the treatment of psoriasis

Isabel M Haugh,1 Allie K Preston,2 Dario N Kivelevitch,1 Alan M Menter1 1Department of Dermatology, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, Bryan, TX, USA Abstract: Risankizumab, a fully human IgG monoclonal antibody inhibitor of IL-23, is a therapeutic agent currently in late stage development for use in the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. It is a biologic agent similar to guselkumab and tildrakizumab which targets IL-23 specifically, and has been primarily developed for use in moderate-to-severe psoriasis. USA-based pharmaceutical company Abbvie submitted it for a Biologics License Application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2018. Risankizumab is the result of a collaboration between the German company Boehringer Ingelheim and Abbvie, which together are leading the future development and commercialization of risankizumab globally. The results from Phase I to Phase III clinical trials of risankizumab show it is highly effective and its FDA-approval in 2018 is likely. In this article we provide an independent expert opinion on the efficacy and safety of risankizumab in psoriasis based on a full review of the literature. Keywords: psoriasis, risankizumab, human monoclonal antibody, interleukin-23, efficacy, safet