- Following up on its December announcement about its comparative clinical trial evaluating Cosentyx (secukinumab) versus Janssen's (JNJ +0.7%) Stelara (ustekinumab) for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, Novartis (NVS +1.8%) presented more detailed data from the study during a research session at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting in San Francisco.
- Cosentyx showed superiority to Stelara as measured by the proportion of patients achieving a PASI 90 score (subjective improvement of 90%) at Week 16 (79.0% vs. 57.6%; p<0.0001). On the basis of PASI 100 score (completely clear skin), the results also favored Cosentyx (44.3% vs. 28.4%; p<0.0001). In addition, the proportion of patients achieving PASI 75 by Week 4 was 50.0% vs. 20.6%; p<0.0001) in favor of secukinumab.
- Secukinumab is a human monoclonal antibody that inhibits interleukin-17A, a protein found in high concentrations in psoriatic skin. Both the FDA and European Commission (EC) cleared it for the indication in January.
- Previously: Novartis' Cosentyx beats Stelara in Phase 3 trial (Dec. 12, 2014)