Discussing Icotrokinra’s Performance Versus Deucravacitinib in Psoriasis, With Linda Stein Gold, MD

Linda Stein Gold, MD, director of dermatology clinical research for the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, spoke in a recent interview about her team’s positive 24-week findings on icotrokina among patients with psoriasis in the phase 3 ICONIC-ADVANCE 1 and 2 studies.1

In a poster titled ‘Icotrokinra demonstrated superior responses compared with placebo and Deucravacitinib in the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis: Results through Week 24 of the phase 3 ICONIC-ADVANCE 1&2 studies,’ Stein Gold and coauthors highlighted their findings. These data were presented at the 2025 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress in Paris.

“The designs of the studies were basically very similar,” Stein Gold said. “What we found was that there were three different arms of the study: Ico, placebo, and deucravacitinib at six milligrams. They took the medication once-daily. The primary endpoint was at Week 16, Ico versus placebo. Then we had some additional endpoints that we recently reported out at Week 24, where we're also looking at the comparison of Ico versus ducavacitinib. These were moderate to severe plaque psoriasis adult patients, and very similar to the designs that we use or the patient inclusion criteria that we use for all systemic and biologic clinical trials.”

Stein Gold was asked during the EADV interview about how icotrokinra compared to deucravacitinib and to placebo.

“What we found was there was a separation of Ico versus the placebo, but also versus deucravacitinib,” Stein Gold explained. “[This was] early on, and that separation continued over the course of the study. We found greater separation at Week 24 than at Week 16, and this held true across all the endpoints that we studied in terms of clear or almost clear, PASI 90, and PASI 75. So it was very consistent data, and this was true across both studies.”

Stein Gold was also asked about these findings’ significance to clinicians treating patients with psoriasis using icotrokinra.

“I think that Ico really fulfills an unmet need in the oral space,” Stein Gold said. “We really need a drug that provides superior efficacy, good safety, and good tolerability, and we love the convenience of once daily dosing. Ico provides all of that. We actually found that when we really push the envelope and ask for even stricter and deeper endpoints, that's where Ico shines…So this is really a new generation of oral therapy where we can provide efficacy that we never thought possible with an oral agent before, but with a safety profile that was really similar to placebo, and an infection profile that was lower than deucravacitinib.”

For any additional findings and research presented at EADV, view the latest coverage of the conference.

Linda Stein Gold has reported serving as an investigator/advisor and/or speaker for AbbVie, Amgen, Arctis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dermavant, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB. She has accepted funding for research from Johnson & Johnson.

References

1. Stein Gold, et al. Icotrokinra demonstrated superior responses compared with placebo and Deucravacitinib in the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis: Results through Week 24 of the phase 3 ICONIC-ADVANCE 1&2 studies. Presented at the European Association of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) 2025 Congress. Paris, France. September 17-20, 2025.

2. Campbell P. ICONIC-ADVANCE: Icotrokinra Beats Deucravacitinib for Plaque Psoriasis. HCPLive. September 17, 2025. Accessed September 26, 2025. https://www.hcplive.com/view/iconic-advance-icotrokinra-bests-deucravacitinib-for-plaque-psoriasis.