Ixekizumab is superior to adalimumab in simultaneously improving both joint and skin disease in patients with psoriatic arthritis who have had an inadequate response to conventional synthetic DMARDs, according to data published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

“This is the first head-to-head study of two biologic agents in PsA,” Philip J. Mease, MD, of the Swedish Medical Center, in Seattle, told Healio Rheumatology. “Head-to-head studies allow us to truly compare two agents because the medications are studied in the same population cohort as opposed to indirect comparison studies in which data is obtained from separate trials and an indirect comparison is made.”