Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG (NVS) Wednesday said its interleukin-17A or IL-17A inhibitor secukinumab met all primary and key secondary endpoints at Week 12 in two pivotal phase III studies - ERASURE and FIXTURE.
While it showed superiority to Enbrel or etanercept in improving moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis symptoms in the FIXTURE study, superiority was seen in both studies over placebo.
Novartis said detailed results from the studies were published online Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine or NEJM.
Over half of secukinumab 300 mg patients experienced clear or almost clear skin, described as Psoriasis Area and Severity Index 90 or 100 (PASI 90/PASI 100) by Week 12. This was 59.2 percent for ERASURE and 54.2 percent for FIXTURE.
In comparison, only 20.7 percent of Enbrel-treated patients experienced PASI 90 or 100 in FIXTURE.
PASI measures the redness, scaling and thickness of psoriatic plaques as well as the extent of involvement in each region of the body.
Secukinumab 300 mg patients' response continued to improve from Week 12, and more than 70 percent experienced clear or almost clear skin by Week 16 in the FIXTURE study. This was maintained in the majority of patients up to Week 52 with continued treatment.
The stock closed down 0.4 percent on Wednesday in Zurich at 80.00 Swiss francs.
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