A 38-year-old man with a several-year history of plaque psoriasis presents for follow-up. Despite treatment, he continues to experience plaques involving his trunk and extremities along with persistent pruritus.

His disease is interfering with sleep, clothing choices, and social activities. Although his current therapy has produced some improvement, he tells you that he wants his skin to be “completely clear.”

He would prefer to remain on an oral treatment rather than transition to an injectable biologic.

The patient asks whether newer oral therapies may provide greater skin clearance without requiring injections.

Among emerging options is zasocitinib (TAK-279), an investigational once-daily oral TYK2 inhibitor being evaluated for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

At the 2026 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress, investigators presented findings from LATITUDE Atlas, a phase 3 randomized, double-blind trial involving 606 adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

Patients received either zasocitinib 30 mg once daily or deucravacitinib 6 mg once daily through week 16.

The patient says that clearing his plaques is important, but his itch may be the symptom affecting him most.

He asks whether clinical trial improvements in skin clearance were accompanied by improvements patients could actually feel in their daily lives.

The patient is encouraged by the possibility of deeper clearance but asks an equally important question:

“If it works, will it keep working?”

Additional analyses from the LATITUDE PsO 3001 and 3002 trials evaluated the durability of responses among patients who had responded to zasocitinib by week 24.

After reviewing his treatment goals and available options, the patient and clinician agree that his persistent plaques, itch, and quality-of-life burden warrant reconsideration of his current treatment strategy. Because he strongly prefers an oral therapy, they discuss currently available treatments as well as emerging evidence for selective TYK2 inhibition.