AAD 2026: Owning Psoriatic Disease, With Lindsay Ackerman, MD

From the first United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA)-approved oral IL-23 receptor antagonist to new data suggesting that biologics may delay the onset of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), the 2026 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting offered a field's worth of momentum.

During the meeting held in Denver, Colorado, from March 27-31, HCPLive spoke with Lindsay Ackerman, MD, FAAD, who came away from Denver more convinced than ever that dermatologists should be taking ownership of the full psoriatic disease burden in their patients.

Ackerman serves as Chief of Dermatology at Banner University Medical Center, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, Medical Director of the US Dermatology Partners Clinical Research Institute, and President of Medical Dermatology Specialists in Phoenix. The conversation ranged across the evolving oral treatment landscape, new data on PsA prevention, the late-breaking TOGETHER-PsA incretin combination results, and what Ackerman described as an exciting but still-early reckoning with how obesity management intersects with chronic inflammatory disease.

Roughly 30% or more of psoriasis patients are likely to develop PsA at some point, and with emerging data showing that both risankizumab and guselkumab are demonstrating delay-to-onset and risk-reduction signals for PsA, Ackerman argued that dermatologists who are already managing these patients' skin disease have both the opportunity and the responsibility to engage with the joint disease — not to displace rheumatology colleagues, but to recognize that the majority of this patient population will be seen first and most frequently in the derm chair.

On the IL-23 front, the headline development for Ackerman was the FDA approval of icotrokinra (ICOTYDE) — the first oral IL-23 receptor antagonist, approved for adults and pediatric patients 12 and older weighing at least 40 kg, dosed once daily — which she characterized as a genuinely new lane for a psoriasis oral market that has historically underperformed relative to biologics. She highlighted the head-to-head data versus deucravacitinib as an important differentiator, and noted that the dosing logistics are manageable: once-daily on waking, with 30 minutes before food, compatible with morning coffee.

Looking further ahead, she noted that Apogee Therapeutics and Takeda are both advancing oral agents targeting IL-23 or its receptor in phase 2a and phase 3 trials respectively — a pipeline that signals the field is serious about giving patients who prefer oral therapy a genuinely competitive option. The TOGETHER-PsA data showing superior ACR50 plus ≥10% weight loss outcomes with ixekizumab plus tirzepatide versus ixekizumab alone also caught Ackerman's attention — not as a settled paradigm, but as the first controlled signal that pharmacologic co-management of obesity in psoriatic disease may amplify inflammatory disease outcomes in ways anecdotal reports and meta-analyses had only suggested. The 52-week data and companion TOGETHER-PsO results are still to come, and Ackerman was careful to frame the obesity-inflammation intersection as a frontier the field is only beginning to quantify — but one she finds genuinely compelling.

“Medical dermatology has been evolving for the past 2 decades in ways that have escalated and escalated and escalated what our treatment options look like. We're now looking at patients with a different set of eyes, a different lens, into what we can therapeutically achieve. And to me, it's just a brilliant moment,” Ackerman said.

Relevant disclosures for Ackerman include AbbVie, Alumis, Amgen, Arcutis, Beiersdorf, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Galderma, L'Oréal, Novartis, Sun Pharmaceutical, and UCB.

References

1. Johnson & Johnson. FDA approval of ICOTYDE™ (icotrokinra) ushers in new era for first-line systemic treatment of plaque psoriasis with a targeted oral peptide. Press release. March 18, 2026. https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/fda-approval-of-icotyde-icotrokinra-ushers-in-new-era-for-first-line-systemic-treatment-of-plaque-psoriasis-with-a-targeted-oral-peptide. Accessed March 28, 2026.

2. Merola JF, et al. Ixekizumab with tirzepatide achieved greater disease control than ixekizumab alone in adults with psoriatic arthritis and overweight or obesity: results from a randomized clinical trial. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2026. doi:10.1002/art.70134.

3. Eli Lilly and Company. Phase 3b data presented at AAD Annual Meeting show Lilly's Taltz (ixekizumab) plus Zepbound (tirzepatide) delivered superior efficacy for adults with psoriatic arthritis and obesity. Press release. March 28, 2026. https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/phase-3b-data-presented-aad-annual-meeting-show-lillys-taltz. Accessed March 28, 2026.