Improvements in Patient‐Reported Outcomes After Treatment With Deucravacitinib in Patients With Psoriatic Arthritis: Results From a Randomized Phase 2 Trial

Objective Deucravacitinib, a tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor, was assessed in a phase 2 trial in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Here, we report effects of deucravacitinib from the patient perspective. Methods This phase 2, double‐blind trial (NCT03881059) randomized patients with active PsA 1:1:1 to deucravacitinib 6 mg once daily (QD), 12 mg QD, or placebo, for 16 weeks. Key secondary end points were changes from baseline (CFBs) at week 16 in Health Assessment Questionnaire‐Disability Index (HAQ‐DI) and 36‐item Short‐Form Health Survey (SF‐36) physical component summary (PCS) scores. Additional patient‐reported outcomes (PROs) assessed disease impact, including fatigue, pain, and mental health. The mean CFBs in PROs and percentages of patients reporting improvements with minimum clinically important differences (MCIDs) or scores of greater than normal values were also assessed. Results This study comprised 203 patients (51.2% female; mean ± SD age, 49.8 ± 13.5 years). At week 16, the adjusted mean difference (95% confidence interval) versus placebo in HAQ‐DI and SF‐36 PCS CFB was significant for each deucravacitinib group (HAQ‐DI 6 mg, −0.26 [−0.42 to −0.10], P = 0.0020; HAQ‐DI 12 mg, −0.28 [−0.45 to −0.12], P = 0.0008; SF‐36 PCS 6 mg, 3.3 [0.9 to 5.7], P = 0.0062; SF‐36 PCS 12 mg, 3.5 [1.1 to 5.9], P = 0.0042). MCID at week 16 were reported for all PROs with either dose of deucravacitinib. Improvements of MCID or to normative values were reported by more patients receiving deucravacitinib than placebo. Conclusion Deucravacitinib groups demonstrate significant and clinically meaningful improvements in PROs versus placebo in patients with active PsA, which warrants further study.