Spotlighting Updates in Psoriasis, PsA Management in 2026, With Philip Mease, MD

A wide array of recent and upcoming updates in the psoriasis management space have been described in a panel discussion at the 2026 Maui Derm Hawaii conference, with several notable leaders in dermatology and rheumatology contributing to this important session.1,2

Philip J. Mease, MD, was 1 such presenter. He is the director of Rheumatology Research at the Swedish Medical Center/Providence St. Joseph Health and also serves as clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Mease spoke in a recent interview with the HCPLive team, filmed on-site at Maui Derm.

Mease’s responses to HCPLive provide unique insights into the psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) subfields. The following transcription highlights Mease’s discussion with the editorial team:

HCPLive: We wanted to ask a bit about some of the key takeaways from your portion of the ‘Psoriasis Update 2026’ at Maui Derm, with an emphasis on some of the most important points made in the talk related to psoriasis, PsA, and their management in the world of medicine today.

Mease: Psoriasis is a very prevalent disease in the US, occurring in over 3% of the population, and of those, 30% will have psoriatic arthritis eventually, which can be destructive of joints. So, it's really important to recognize the presence of psoriasis, because it's so treatable. It is necessary to recognize the underlying presence of psoriatic arthritis, which can occur in joints, places where tendons or ligaments insert into bone, and the spine.

It can be very heterogeneous in the way it presents, and sometimes it’s difficult for clinicians to figure out. One of the things that we discussed in today's set of lectures and panel discussions was the growing number of effective treatments that are increasingly safe to use and can achieve quite significant states of low disease activity or remission, relatively safely for many patients. There are several classes that we end up choosing from the dermatologist, particularly interleukin-23 inhibitors and interleukin-17 inhibitors.

We rheumatologists do as well. There is a very prominent group of physicians, especially in the rheumatology world, who are using TNF inhibitors. We've been using them for almost 25 years now. And then, there's a group of oral medicines known as JAK inhibitors, which have certain safety issues associated with them. But there's a newer class that's coming along of JAK inhibitors, known as TYK2 inhibitors, that are relatively safe and effective in skin manifestations, including not only psoriasis, but also lupus.

HCPLive: Would you please elaborate on some of these TYK2 inhibitors and any other points you hope clinicians walk away with?

Mease: There's one TYK2 inhibitor known as deucravacitinib, which is already approved for the treatment of psoriasis and soon to be approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Others are en route, including one called zasocitinib, which has already conducted a phase 2 trial in psoriatic arthritis. We're in the midst of phase 3 as we speak. There are others in development, as well. The features of them include the fact that they don't have major safety signals; Really, no significant signals for serious infection, cardiovascular issues, malignancy, and so on. So we're anticipating that there'll be a good addition to the armamentarium as a safe oral option for patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

HCPLive: What are your feelings about the need for collaboration between clinicians treating PsA and those treating psoriasis?

Mease: Well, the obvious thing to start with is to say that since most patients who develop psoriatic arthritis have had psoriasis for years, then psoriasis is the perfect biomarker to predict the advent of psoriatic arthritis. It's very important for dermatologists, other clinicians, and patients themselves to become aware of this relationship and to know when they start to have musculoskeletal symptoms, to bring this to the attention of their clinicians, so that they can either make the diagnosis themselves or refer to a rheumatologist to make a diagnosis.

It can be hard to make the diagnosis, distinguishing it from other forms of arthritis, like osteoarthritis. We especially see this in the spine, where it can be inflammatory arthritis, osteoarthritis, or both. So it's really important to get the patients in the hands of a rheumatologist so they can really figure out if this inflammatory joint disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and so on, and what will be the most effective treatment for those elements of the disease.

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

Mease has previously reported receiving research grants from AbbVie, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sun Pharma and UCB; and serving as a consultant and/or receiving speaker fees from AbbVie, Acelyrin, Aclaris, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Galápagos, Gilead, GSK, Janssen, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Sun Pharma, UCB, Ventyx Biosciences and XinThera.

References

1. Stein Gold L, Song E, Gordon K, et al. Psoriasis Update 2026. Presented at: Maui Derm Hawaii 2026; January 25-29, 2026; Maui, Hawaii.

2. Sbidian E, Chaimani A, Le Cleach L, et al. Systemic pharmacological treatments for chronic plaque psoriasis: a network meta-analysis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Aug 6;8(8):CD011535. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011535.pub7. PMID: 40767824; PMCID: PMC12327466.