LONDON—Results from the extension phase of a Phase 3 trial for the IL-17A inhibitor ixekizumab in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) show that patients started on placebo, adalimumab and ixekizumab continued to show improvements in arthritis, dactylitis and ethesitis, said Philip Mease, MD, a rheumatologist at Swedish Medical Center University of Washington in Seattle.1 Dr. Mease presented the…
A study that found distinct sexual dimorphism in the immunologic profiles of patients with ankylosing spondylosis (AS) suggests that sex is an important variable to address in future research and may eventually lead to more effective sex-specific therapy for patients with the disease. The research, published in the March 2016 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology,…
(Reuters)—Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s experimental drug to treat psoriasis should be approved as long as certain measures are put in place to mitigate the risk of suicide, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded on Tuesday. The FDA is not obliged to follow the advice of its advisory committees but typically…
(Reuters)—Drug developer Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its experimental psoriasis drug significantly reduced the skin condition in patients from a mid-stage trial, sending its shares up 70% in after-hours trading. Patients taking a 350 mg dose of the drug, VTP-43742, showed a 24% reduction, while patients who took the 700 mg dose showed a 30% reduction…
CR845—an oral, peripherally selective kappa opioid agonist—is currently in Phase 2 trials for the treatment of pruritus, and acute and chronic pain.1 Eighty patients with hip osteoarthritis (OA) or knee OA were randomized to receive treatment with 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1.0 mg or 5.0 mg CR845 twice daily for two weeks. Safety assessment, pharmacokinetics…
Three clinical trials are evaluating subcutaneous sirukumab for safety and efficacy in treating rheumatoid arthritis. And a study found no significant difference in persistence and remission for TNF-α monotherapy when compared with TNF-α plus conventional DMARD combination therapy for treating psoriatic arthritis…
In a recent study, the use of anifrolumab in SLE patients was shown to be safe and effective, enabling some patients to decrease their oral steroids. Also, secukinumab has been approved in Europe to treat ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Obese patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis are apt to experience significant symptomatic relief following bariatric surgery, according to a new chart review. Specifically, the study found that more than half of the patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis reported improvements in their disease following surgery. Dr. Soumya Reddy, assistant professor of…
(Reuters)—Drug developer XenoPort Inc. said on Tuesday its experimental drug was effective in treating psoriasis, sending its shares up 19% in premarket trading. The oral drug met the main goal in a phase 2 trial of patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque-type psoriasis, the company said. XenoPort said it expected to start late-stage trials next year…
PSOLAR, the Psoriasis Longitudinal Assessment and Registry, is a multicenter, longitudinal, intercontinental, disease-based registry used to identify adverse events from commonly used psoriasis drugs.1 An evaluation of the risk of serious infection from systemic psoriasis treatments was recently published using data from PSOLAR. Ninety-three institutional review boards or ethics committees reported into the registry from…