Discussing Risankizumab Efficacy in Genital and Scalp Psoriasis, with Eingun James Song, MD

In this interview held at Dermatology Education Foundation (DERM) 2025 NP/PA CME Conference, Eingun James Song, MD, spoke about 16-week findings from the phase 4 UnlIMMited study and the efficacy and safety of risankizumab for genital and scalp psoriasis.1

Song—who is known for his role as the director of clinical research at Frontier Dermatology in Mills Creek, Washington—spoke about some of the most notable elements of the study’s design and about some of the biggest takeaways regarding risankizumab’s use in genital and scalp psoriasis. Though the study is ongoing, these 16-week data demonstrated several unique findings Song wished to highlight.

“The reason we did the unlimited study was that psoriasis that affects what we call high-impact or special side areas, specifically the scalp and genital skin tends to be misdiagnosed or under-diagnosed and under-treated,” Song explained. “These patients are often just using topical therapies, or they're using the wrong treatment altogether because they think they have something completely different. These patients are underrepresented in our typical phase 3 studies for psoriasis, because you typically need 10% BSA and PASI-12 to get into these studies. So this has been a large unmet area for us as far as research.”

Song highlighted that even among clinicians treating psoriasis who feel comfortable using medications such as risankizumab in patients with limited body surface area (BSA) and have disease in high impact areas, did not have a large dedicated study to demonstrate a safe and effective use of this medicine in such a population.

UnlIMMited was broken up into 2 sub-studies by disease location, with participants with moderate to severe genital psoriasis in one and those with moderate to severe scalp psoriasis in another. Those taking part received subcutaneous risankizumab injections over a 52-week treatment period, or a placebo during the 16 week treatment period followed by risankizumab in the 36-week treatment period.

“The way the study was designed is very straightforward,” Song said. “You either got a placebo or you got risankizumab at the label dose of 100 to 50 milligrams, at Week 0, at Week 4, and then 16 weeks was the primary endpoint. That's the data that we're going to be talking about today, although there is some additional data that'll be coming in the future, looking at the 52 week data. To qualify for this study…you just had to have moderate to severe genital or scalp psoriasis, based on IGA specifically.”

Song highlighted the high levels of response observed by his team in both the genital and scalp cohorts.

“If you look at the genital population specifically, close to 7 out of 10 patients on risankizumab at the label dose got completely clear or almost clear," Song said. "That's at 16 weeks. So very high efficacy for the scalp. It was about 60% of the patients got to clear or almost clear. In my personal experience, generally, the scalp takes longer to clear than other parts of the body. So if I were to guess, these numbers could potentially get even better in the future when we show you that 52-week data.”

For any additional information, view Song’s full interview segment posted in the video above. To find out more covered during the DERM 2025 conference, view our latest coverage here.

The quotes used in this summary were edited for clarity.

References

1. Song EJ, Ackerman L, Anschutz T, et al. Safety and Efficacy of Risankizumab in Genital and Scalp Psoriasis in the UnlIMMited Phase 4 Randomized Clinical Trial at Week 16. Poster presented at the DERM 2025 NP/PA CME Conference; July 23 - 26, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada.