JointHealth™ express   August 11, 2017

Call for patient input on guselkumab for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis

Do you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or care for someone who does? We need your valuable input.

The Common Drug Review (CDR) is currently welcoming patients and their caregivers to provide input to patient organizations on the manufacturer’s submission for guselkumab for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

Guselkumab belongs to the biologic response modifier class of inflammatory arthritis medications. It works by blocking the interleukin (IL)-23 molecule, a cytokine that plays a key role in plaque psoriasis.


To help them make their recommendations, the CDR accepts input from patient organizations and groups, like Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE). Because patient input is vitally important to government decision-making about public reimbursement of medications, we would like to gather your views and share them with the CDR.

These are the questions they are asking:
  1. What are the plaque psoriasis related symptoms and problems that impact the patients' day-to-day life and quality of life? For example, what aspects of plaque psoriasis are more important to control, how does the disease affect day-to-day life, and are there any activities that the patient is not able to do as a result of plaque psoriasis?
    • Are patients using or have they ever used guselkumab for the treatment of their disease?
    • What therapy are patients using for plaque psoriasis?
    • How effective are current treatments in controlling the common aspects of plaque psoriasis?
    • Are there needs, experienced by some or many patients, which are not being met by the current treatments? What are these needs?
    • Do current treatments have adverse effects that are more difficult to tolerate than others? What are they?
    • Do patients have difficulty accessing current treatments because of costs, such as costs related to travel and drug administration costs?
    • When offered, how do the patient assistance or support programs impact on the accessibility and effectiveness of the treatment?
  3. How does the disease affect caregivers?
    • What challenges do family and friends who support a patient to manage the disease face?
    • What impact does the treatment have on the caregiver’s daily life, such as emotional/psychological effects, fatigue, stress, and physical challenges?
  4. What are patients’ expectations for guselkumab?
    • What are the perceived advantages or disadvantages of guselkumab?
    • What are the aspects of the patients’ disease that it is hoped will be addressed?
    • How might daily life and quality of life for patients, caregivers, and families be different if the new treatment provided desired improvements?
    • What trade-offs do patients, families and caregivers consider when choosing a therapy?
  5. Has the patient tried guselkumab?
    • What were the benefits or disadvantages of guselkumab?
    • How did the benefits or disadvantages impact the lives of patients, caregivers, and families?
    • Did the patient experience any side effects and were they tolerated? How were the side effects managed?
    • Was the drug easier to use than previous therapies? How so?
If you live with plaque psoriasis or care for someone with the disease, please send us your input by Thursday, September 14, 2017 so that we may make a submission by the September 18 deadline. Your input will be anonymous.
