A Closer Look at Safety and Tolerability for Deucravacitinib and Apremilast in Psoriasis

Panelists discuss how safety remains central to therapy selection, especially for long-term psoriasis management. Both deucravacitinib and apremilast show favorable profiles, with no significant organ toxicity or lab monitoring burdens. Deucravacitinib maintains a consistent safety record over 5 years, while apremilast’s profile is well characterized across psoriasis and related conditions.

Panelists discuss how tolerability drives adherence. Apremilast’s gastrointestinal effects often resolve over time, while deucravacitinib’s selective mechanism minimizes off-target adverse events. These aspects contribute to sustained treatment satisfaction and persistence.

Panelists discuss how safety considerations differ by comorbidity and patient preference. The experts encourage clinicians to engage patients in open discussions about risks, benefits, and expectations to ensure long-term therapeutic success.



Videos

Panelists discuss how both oral agents exhibit reassuring long-term safety and tolerability that support continued use in diverse psoriasis populations.

Clinical

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Video Series

Impact of Oral Therapies on High-Impact Sites in Psoriasis

Panelists discuss how scalp and other visible or sensitive areas can significantly affect quality of life, making effective oral options critical. Deucravacitinib demonstrates strong performance in scalp-specific trials with substantial improvements in itch and lesion clearance, while apremilast also shows notable but less robust outcomes.

Panelists discuss how choosing between therapies may depend on patient priorities, including symptom relief versus rapid aesthetic improvement. Deucravacitinib’s ability to achieve higher clearance rates supports its use in more stubborn or high-impact presentations, whereas apremilast remains valuable for milder, multifocal disease.

Panelists discuss how tailoring treatment by site involvement can optimize outcomes and patient satisfaction, reinforcing that oral agents offer important alternatives when topical or injectable therapies are impractical.

Panelists discuss how deucravacitinib provides greater scalp and high-impact site clearance than apremilast, supporting more personalized psoriasis care.

ECRIs Introduce a Novel Approach to Disarming Allergic Effector Cells, With Geoff Harris, PhD

2025 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Meeting

Geoff Harris, PhD, of Dermavant Sciences, discussed emerging research on a new therapeutic approach known as allergic effector cell response inhibitors (ECRIs) and how this mechanism could influence the treatment of IgE-mediated diseases such as chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), 

Harris explained that ECRIs represent a distinct way of targeting the IgE axis compared with existing agents.

“Instead of just reducing reactivity, you basically make these cells almost unable to respond to allergen,” Harris told 

Existing and investigational therapies primarily target free IgE, intercepting it before it binds to mast cells or basophils through the Fc epsilon receptor. This approach effectively prevents new cell activation but has little impact on cells that are already armed with IgE.

“That's why existing drugs are fairly slow to act for patients and give them clinical benefit,” Harris said.

ECRIs function through a tri-functional mechanism: they remove IgE bound to the surface of effector cells, neutralize free IgE, and downregulate the expression of the FcεRI receptor. By addressing each component of the allergic signaling process, these agents may substantially limit the ability of effector cells to respond to allergens.

“Unlike previous approaches, where people have tried to just block IGE binding to the receptor that drives the arming of mast cells, we looked at it to comprehensively say, ‘How can we not only do that, but systematically disarm that cells?’” Harris said. “And so, an ECRI…an allergic effector cell response inhibitor, is really designed to systematically disarm them.”

A recent publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI)

supported this approach, showing that ECRIs could reliably remove IgE from cell surfaces without triggering activation. Harris noted that this validation demonstrates a more comprehensive way to inhibit IgE activity, which may translate to faster and more consistent responses in patients compared with currently available therapies.

Dermavant Sciences plans to move its lead ECRI candidate into phase 1 clinical development in early 2026, with a study focused on safety, exposure, and biomarker measures of target modulation.

Harris, G. Validating the trifunctional mechanism of action (MOA) of Effector Cell Response Inhibitors, or ECRIs. Presented at ACAAI 2025 in Orlando, Florida.

At ACAAI 2025, Harris discussed research on novel mechanism known as allergic effector cell response inhibitors.

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Allergy

Allergy condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on allergic and inflammatory diseases. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for food and seasonal allergies, as well as allergic asthma and related conditions.

Wei Zhang, MD, PhD, is a transplant hepatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Stigma Hinders Diagnosis and Care, With Wei Zhang, MD

New research highlights the disproportionate impact of etiology-specific stigma on patients with liver disease, demonstrating heightened rates, delays in diagnosis, and barriers to care among patients with alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) compared to those with non-alcohol-related liver disease.

Wei Zhang, MD, a transplant hepatologist and assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, presented the findings at the 

American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) The Liver Meeting 2025

. The results emphasize the need for patient-informed strategies to reduce stigma, support earlier diagnosis and intervention, and improve clinical outcomes for ALD patients.

The stigma surrounding alcohol use disorder impacts patients at all levels of their lives, including psychosocial and healthcare. As a result, alcohol-associated liver disease can complicate conversations with healthcare providers and family members, interfere with illness recognition and insight, timely help-seeking, treatment adherence, and recovery.

“Stigma is one of the main reasons patients with alcohol-associated liver disease don’t receive timely or equitable care. When patients feel judged or blamed for their illness, they are less likely to come to care early, disclose their alcohol use honestly, or stay engaged in follow-ups,” Zhang said in an interview with 

. “From a provider perspective, stigma can lead to skepticism about patient motivation and raise questions about whether patients ‘deserve’ care. This bias also lowers the threshold for denying patients with ALD access to liver transplant, while other liver disease etiologies are often considered blameless.”

Zhang and colleagues measured stigma using 3 categories: internalized, anticipated, and experienced. The Liver Disease Stigma Scale (LDSS), a 28-item validated instrument, quantified each category. Internalized stigma includes self-identified negative stereotypes and blame, anticipated stigma refers to expectations of judgment or discrimination, and experienced stigma captures real-world instances of judgment, blame, or differential treatment. These factors were assessed in family and healthcare settings.

The study included 221 adults with liver disease, including 133 with ALD and 88 with non-ALD etiologies. Patients with ALD were more likely to be male and to have lower educational attainment (

significantly greater reported levels of stigma in patients with ALD, including experienced (mean,1.75; standard deviation [SD], 0.90 vs 1.23; SD, 0.46; 

<.001), anticipated (1.57; SD, 0.77 vs 1.24; SD, 0.50; 

<.001), and internalized (2.34; SD, 1.12 vs 1.54; SD, 0.84; 

<.001). Between domains, differences were also observed in both family and healthcare settings. Family-related experienced stigma was higher in patients with ALD (1.79; SD, 1.07) compared with those with non-ALD (1.19; SD, 0.37), as was healthcare-related experienced stigma (1.71; SD, 0.93 vs 1.27; SD, 0.62).

Investigators found heightened negative attitude towards liver disease (2.11; SD,0.87 vs 1.44; SD, 0.59; 

<.001) and liver disease treatment (1.38; SD, 0.54 vs 1.21; SD,0.39; 

= .008) in patients with ALD, underscoring stigma’s influence on perceptions of care, engagement, and healthcare outcomes.

“From a provider perspective, education is key to reduce bias and recognizing ALD as a treatable disease, and it's important for providers to feel comfortable prescribing appropriate medications. Providers should also use patient-centered language to make patients feel heard and engaged,” said Zhang. “At the system level, we can implement more objective selection processes for interventions and liver transplant to reduce personal bias. Integrated hepatology-addiction clinics can also provide the comprehensive care these patients need.”

Editor’s note: Zhang reports no relevant disclosures.

Zhang W, Hsu K, Wu E, et al. Greater liver disease–related stigma among patients with alcohol-associated liver disease compared with non–alcohol-related liver disease. Abstract presented at: American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases The Liver Meeting 2025; 2025; Washington, DC.

Schomerus G, Leonhard A, Manthey J, et al. The stigma of alcohol-related liver disease and its impact on healthcare. J Hepatol. 2022;77(2). doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2022.04.026

A study presented at AASLD 2025 shows patients with alcohol-associated liver disease experience greater stigma compared with non-ALD patients.


Hepatology

Addiction

Addiction medicine condition center page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into clinical addiction can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on addiction therapy research, treatment, and drug development.

Zobair Younossi, MD, MPH, is chairman of the Global NASH/MASH Council and professor and chairman of Beatty Liver and Obesity Research at Inova Health System.

Health-Related Quality of Life Improvements With Resmetirom, With Zobair Younossi, MD, MPH

While the hepatic benefits of resmetirom (Rezdiffra) are well established following its US Food and Drug Administration approval for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), new research is shedding light on the treatment’s impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

 by Zobair Younossi, MD, MPH, chairman of the Global NASH/MASH Council and professor and chairman of Beatty Liver and Obesity Research at Inova Health System, and highlight improvements in select disease-specific HRQoL scores among patients without or with cirrhosis due to MASLD treated with resmetirom in the phase 3 MAESTRO-NAFLD trial.

“As physicians, we always look at biochemical, physiological, liver histology or NITs as ‘important’ endpoints or outcomes, but from a patient's perspective, it's how they feel, how they experience the disease or the treatment,” Younossi explained to 

. “To me, that should be the most important, because if you're going to do patient-centered care, then the patient has to be at the center…. In my opinion, putting the patient-reported outcome at least on an equal footing to the physiological, biochemical and other outcomes is extremely important.”

Research he presented at AASLD explored the HRQoL impacts of treatment with resmetirom in MAESTRO-NAFLD. Patients with MASLD with cirrhosis (CP-A) or MASLD without cirrhosis were enrolled in a 52-week, phase 3 double-blind placebo-controlled study of resmetirom (Period 1 of MAESTRO-NAFLD) and upon treatment completion, were offered to enroll in a 52-week open-label extension study of resmetirom (Period 2). HRQoL was assessed using LDQOL, CLDQ-NAFLD and WPAI throughout treatment period 1 at baseline, week 24, week 52 and treatment Period 2 at day 1, week 12, week 28, and week 52.

For non-cirrhotic MASLD, PDFF response was defined as a decrease in MRI-PDFF ≥30% from baseline. For cirrhotic MASLD, it was defined as ≥20% decrease in MRI-PDFF if baseline MRI-PDFF was >5%.

MAESTRO NAFLD included a total of 1307 MASLD patients. Of these, 193 had cirrhosis (23% with baseline MRI-PDFF ≤5%) and 1114 were without cirrhosis (baseline MRI-PDFF ≥8%).

At baseline, HRQoL scores of patients with cirrhosis were significantly lower (up to -16% of score range) for all 6 domains of CLDQNAFLD, 14/17 domains of LDQOL, Activity Impairment of WPAI (p<0.05). Among patients with cirrhosis, there was no significant difference in baseline HRQL scores between those with MRI-PDFF ≤5% and >5% (all 

>.05). By week 24 of treatment with resmetirom during period 1, patients with cirrhosis experienced improvements in Worry (CLDQ-NAFLD) and Health Distress (LDQOL) up to +4% of score range which sustained by week 52 and throughout Period 2 (

In cirrhotic patients with MRI-PDFF >5%, PDFF response by Period 1 week 52, there was an improvement in Stigma score (LDQOL; mean change, +4.0 vs -5.7; 

= .011). By weeks 24 and 52 of treatment, non-cirrhotic patients receiving placebo experienced worsening of HRQL in some physical health-related domains of LDQOL (mean decrease up to -5%; 

<.05) while no decreases were observed in non-cirrhotic patients treated with resmetirom.

Additionally, non-cirrhotic patients receiving resmetirom experienced improvement in Abdominal and Worry domains of CLDQ-NAFLD and Health Distress of LDQOL (mean increase up to +5% of score range size), while no similar improvements were observed in placebo (all 

>.05). Non-cirrhotic patients with PDFF response also experienced improvements in Abdominal and Worry scores (up to +7%), which were greater than those seen in placebo or non-responders.

“From my perspective, the PROs really have 2 important aspects in this context,” Younossi explained. “One is that the drug that you're using is not worsening patients' quality of life, because some drugs, historically, interferon for hepatitis C, have caused a lot of side effects, and quality of life actually took a dive. Here, not only are you not seeing a decline in quality of life, but you're actually seeing improvement, so you're improving our patient's experience and how they feel.”

Editors' note: Younossi reports relevant disclosures with Intercept, Gilead, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ipsen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GSK, NovoNordisk, Siemens, Madridgal, Merck, Akero and Abbott.

Brooks A. Resmetirom (Rezdiffra) Receives Historic FDA Approval for Noncirrhotic NASH. HCPLive. March 14, 2024. Accessed November 11, 2025. 

https://www.hcplive.com/view/resmetirom-rezdiffra-receives-historic-fda-approval-for-noncirrhotic-nash

Younossi Z, Nader F, Labriola D, et al. Improvement In Health-Related Quality of Life After Treatment with Resmetirom in Cirrhotic and Non-Cirrhotic Patients with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease: Data From MAESTRO‑NAFLD. Presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) The Liver Meeting 2025. Washington, DC. November 7-11, 2025.

Younossi explains the importance of patient-reported outcomes and assessing HRQoL, breaking down findings from an analysis of the MAESTRO-NAFLD trial of resmetirom.

MASH / MASLD

The HCPLive MASH & MASLD page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and steatohepatitis. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for fatty liver disease, steatohepatitis, and more.

Alex Hillenbrand is an assistant editor for 

. She earned her BA in English from Lafayette College in 2023 and went on to write for pop culture, entertainment, and sports media outlets before joining MJH Life Sciences in 2025. In her free time, Alex enjoys cooking, going on walks, and meeting new people. Contact her at mjhlifesciences.com.

Articles

ELATIVE 3-year open-label extension data show sustained reductions in pruritus and fatigue in adults with primary biliary cholangitis treated with elafibranor.


Cholangitis

cholangitis page, resources on the topics of medical news and expert insight into cholangitis can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on research, treatment, and drug development in PBC, PSC, and more!

Long-Term Elafibranor Treatment Leads to Biochemical, Symptomatic Improvements in PBC

Andreas Kremer, MD, PhD, MHBA, is the head of hepatology at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.

Kremer describes recent advancements in the PBC treatment landscape and reviews findings from abstracts on elafibranor presented at AASLD The Liver Meeting 2025.

Long-Term Efficacy and Symptom Relief With Elafibranor in PBC, With Andreas Kremer, MD, PhD

Panelists discuss how clinical results confirm the effectiveness, safety, and caregiver convenience of new nonsteroidal therapies for pediatric AD.

Peer Exchange

HCPLive® Peer Exchange panel discussions feature authoritative insights, opinions, and perspectives on important issues facing today's care professionals.

Tapinarof Efficacy and Safety in Pediatric AD Care

Panelists discuss how improved clinical trial design helps ensure new treatments reflect real-world experiences and family priorities.

Improved Pediatric AD Clinical Trial Design and Efficacy Outcomes

Professor of medicine, Washington University in St. Louis

Nephrology

The HCPLive nephrology page is a resource for medical news and expert insights on kidney disease. This page features expert-led coverage, articles, videos and research on the therapies and development of treatments in nephrology, and more.

Type 1 Diabetes

Endocrinology

The HCPLive endocrinology page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on endocrine system conditions. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for diabetes, hormonal disease, and more.

Finerenone Marks a Breakthrough for Kidney Protection in Type 1 Diabetes, with Janet McGill, MD, MA

Binu John, MD, MPH, is an associate professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Miami

ALTUS findings presented at AASLD show mt-HBT detects early-stage HCC with >66% higher sensitivity than ultrasound, addressing gaps in liver cancer surveillance.


ALTUS: Multi-Target Blood Outperforms Ultrasound for HCC, With Binu John, MD, MPH

Princess Ogbogu, MD, from the University of Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital

In a phase 3 NATRON trial presented at ACAAI 2025, Ogbogu discussed how benralizumab reduced flare in patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome.

Benralizumab Reduces HES Flare in Phase 3 Trial, With Princess Ogbogu, MD

Harrison Nguyen, MD, MBA, MPH, is a double board-certified dermatologist/Mohs micrographic surgeon and clinical researcher in Houston, Texas.

In this segment of his SDPA Fall interview, Nguyen highlighted his second talk ‘Patterns in Red and Purple: Decoding Vasculitis in the Skin.’

Dermatology

The HCPLive dermatology page is a resource for medical news and expert insights on skin disease. This page features expert-led coverage, articles, videos and research on the therapies and development of treatments for dermatologic conditions, and more.

What Are the Hallmarks of Cutaneous Vasculitis? With Harrison Nguyen, MD, MBA, MPH

Ryan Livingston joined the MJH Life Sciences team in March of 2025, shortly after graduating from TCNJ with a bachelor’s degree in English. He enjoys creative writing, reading, and scuba diving. He can be reached at rlivingston@mjhlifesciences.com.

Although the initial MACE composite outcome was not statistically significant, investigators saw follow-up MI risk reduced by >50%.

Cardiology

Cardiology condition center page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases. This page consists of interviews, articles, podcasts, and videos on the research, treatment and development of therapies for heart disease and cardiovascular events, as well as associated diabetes, renal failure, and more...

Structural Heart Disease

Target-D: Optimized Vitamin D Dosage Reduces Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Heart Disease Patients

Christopher Bowlus, MD, is the Lena Valente Professor and Chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of California Davis School of Medicine.

Bowlus explains clinical outcomes associated with PBC and the importance of assessing liver stiffness over time, highlighting data on seladelpar from AASLD.

Latest News

A Closer Look at Safety and Tolerability for Deucravacitinib and Apremilast in Psoriasis

Impact of Oral Therapies on High-Impact Sites in Psoriasis

ECRIs Introduce a Novel Approach to Disarming Allergic Effector Cells, With Geoff Harris, PhD

Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Stigma Hinders Diagnosis and Care, With Wei Zhang, MD

Health-Related Quality of Life Improvements With Resmetirom, With Zobair Younossi, MD, MPH