Discussing New Data on Treating HS, Psoriasis at EADV 2025 Congress, With Mona Shahriari, MD

During the 2025 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress in Paris, France, the HCPLive editorial team spoke to Mona Shahriari, MD, associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University and host of The Medical Sisterhood podcast, about which findings released at EADV were among the most significant in dermatology.

Shahriari spoke generally about the meeting and then went into depth about the treatment data that she felt showed significance for different disease states. First, Shahriari touched on the 24-week interim data from the pivotal phase 3 STOP-HS program, highlighting povorcitinib therapy’s meaningful and statistically significant hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) improvements observed among adults ≥18 years.1

“I feel like we went from having nothing in the HS toolbox to now actually having some options that we can talk to our patients about,” Shahriari said. “And what's been most exciting for me is that there was a huge HS session yesterday, and the room was packed with individuals who are trying to learn about this disease, a disease that, historically, we haven't really taken great ownership of in the derm space. We knew our patients had the disease, but we didn't have a lot of options to offer them.”

These new data on povorcitinib, a highly selective oral JAK1 inhibitor, were touched on by Shahriari as notable, with the medication described as a potential first-in-class drug if approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for HS.1

“It just offers a different modality to deliver the drug to our patients,” Shahriari explained. “Because with HS, one of the biggest challenges is one we don't fully understand: the pathophysiology. There are so many different cytokines and inflammatory markers, and I think that's partly why the treatments that we've had thus far have helped, but nothing has been effective as a monotherapy and [hasn’t] offered that slam dunk resolution of symptoms. So hopefully, a JAK inhibitor, by virtue of targeting multiple cytokines, might offer us a little bit more flexibility in terms of targeting more of the aspects that contribute to the disease.”

Shahriari later highlighted findings released during EADV regarding icotrokinra, Johnson & Johnson’s first-in-class investigational targeted oral IL-23 inhibitor. In 1 such study, the drug was observed in the ICONIC-LEAD study to be superior to deucravacitinib (Sotyktu) for skin clearance attainment at Weeks 16 and 24 in those with moderate-to-severe psoriasis.2

“We have had an explosion of injectables in the psoriasis landscape since the turn of the century, but the evolution and innovation and the oral arena had been lacking until recently,” Shahriari said. “We've had a couple of newer agents that were undergoing trials, but really, icotrokinra is a little bit different. It's an oral peptide that actually targets the IL-23 receptor…Now we're targeting it a little bit differently, and what comes with that targeted look at this pathway is that we're seeing biologic-like efficacy of the drug.”

For any additional information on related topics in the dermatology space, view our latest coverage of the conference.

References

1. Smith T. Povorcitinib Improves Moderate to Severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa at Week 24. HCPLive. September 17, 2025. Accessed September 25, 2025. https://www.hcplive.com/view/povorcitinib-improves-moderate-severe-hidradenitis-suppurativa-week-24.

2. Campbell P. ICONIC-ADVANCE: Icotrokinra Beats Deucravacitinib for Plaque Psoriasis. HCPLive. September 17, 2025. Accessed September 25, 2025. https://www.hcplive.com/view/iconic-advance-icotrokinra-bests-deucravacitinib-for-plaque-psoriasis.