science

Guselkumab

Guselkumab is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Guselkumab rather than just read about it. In short: Guselkumab ( gew-SEL-kew-mab; sold under the brand name Tremfya) is a human monoclonal antibody against interleukin-23 used for the treatment of plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. Medical uses Guselkumab is indicated to treat plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease.

Key takeaways

Guselkumab belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Guselkumab to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Guselkumab from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Guselkumab ( gew-SEL-kew-mab; sold under the brand name Tremfya) is a human monoclonal antibody against interleukin-23 used for the treatment of plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease.

Medical uses Guselkumab is indicated to treat plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease.

Adverse effects The most common side effects for guselkumab are upper respiratory tract infections, headache, injection site reactions, joint pain, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, fungal skin infections and herpes simplex infections.

Pharmacology

Mechanism of action Guselkumab targets the IL-23 subunit alpha (p19 subunit) preventing it from binding to cell receptors that would otherwise be activated by its presence.

Pharmacokinetics Cmax 8.09 μg/mL tmax 5.5 days volume of distribution 13.5 L apparent clearance 0.516 L/day

History Guselkumab was developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals. In November 2016, Janssen submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval of guselkumab.

Society and culture

Legal status In July 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved guselkumab for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. In November 2017, Health Canada approved guselkumab for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. In September 2020, the approval was expanded to include the treatment of adults with psoriatic arthritis. In April 2018, guselkumab was approved in Japan for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. In July 2020, the FDA approved guselkumab as the first IL-23 inhibitor to treat active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In September 2024, the FDA approved guselkumab for the treatment of moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis in adults. In May 2025, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved guselkumab for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Economics The list price of each 100 mg dose is about US$10,000.

Names During development, guselkumab was referred to as CNTO-1959.

Research Guselkumab has undergone phase III clinical trials comparing it with adalimumab (Humira) and ustekinumab (Stelara). The safety and efficacy of guselkumab was compared to a placebo and to adalimumab in the "VOYAGE 1" and "VOYAGE 2" phase III clinical trials (ClinicalTrials.gov IDs: NCT02207231 and NCT02207244). Preliminary results indicated that a significantly higher proportion of patients taking guselkumab had better skin clearance compared to those taking the other treatments. At week 16, 73.3% of patients taking guselkumab achieved a PASI 90 (90% reduction in PASI score from baseline), vs 49.7% of those taking adalimumab; additionally, 91.2% of patients taking guselkumab achieved a PASI 75 (75% reduction in PASI score from baseline), vs 73.1% of those taking adalimumab. The phase III clinical trial "NAVIGATE" (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02203032) included only patients who had poor responses to treatment with ustekinumab. It showed that patients who switched to guselkumab from ustekinumab did better than those who remained on ustekinumab.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Guselkumab

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Guselkumab claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Guselkumab before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Guselkumab ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Guselkumab

In research: Guselkumab appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Guselkumab in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Guselkumab is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anti-interleukin monoclonal antibodies, Drugs developed by Johnson & Johnson, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Guselkumab outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Guselkumab in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Guselkumab means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Guselkumab out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guselkumab in simple terms?

Why does Guselkumab matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Guselkumab?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Guselkumab.