Failure rates and survival times of systemic and biologic therapies in treating psoriasis: a retrospective study
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Updated: Jan 4, 2026

The Goeckerman Regimen for the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Psoriasis
Published on: July 11, 2013
Nishadh Sutaria1, Shiu-Chung Au1,2
1Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
Background:
Systemic and biologic therapies have varying failure rates and survival times in treating psoriasis.
Objective:
We aim to describe the patterns of therapy failure in psoriasis patients.
Methods:
A retrospective (January 2009 to May 2018) analysis of 250 psoriasis patients seen at a psoriasis referral center, and 806 treatment courses of several systemic and biologic therapies, was conducted to determine failure rates and survival times for systemic and biologic therapies.
Results:
Systemic therapies failed more often due to their adverse effects (16.4% vs 7.2%, p < .001). Biologics failed more often due to secondary failure (24.2% vs. 9.3%, p < .001). Biologics had a longer survival time (23.9 ± 22.2 vs. 12.6 ± 15.4 months, p < .001), even with early failures (≤6 months) removed (29.0 ± 22.5 vs. 21.1 ± 16.4 months, p = .014).
Limitations:
Tertiary referral center, unreported causes of failure, sample size.
Conclusions:
Systemic therapies fail more often due to adverse effects while biologics fail more often due to loss of efficacy. Biologic therapies have longer survival times than systemic therapies.
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