Hold on to your hats. Imagine a single injection clearing your psoriasis for weeks or months. (And not some phony internet scam but the real thing.) For some psoriasis patients, it was a reality in a recent clinical trial of an experimental psoriasis treatment currently called CNTO 1275. The treatment, made by Centocor (makers of Remicade), is given by a shot under the skin, like most of the current biologics. Some highlights of the study, which will appear in tomorrow’s New England Journal of Medicine:
In the Phase Two trial, 81 percent of patients receiving four weekly 90 mg doses of CNTO 1275 achieved at least 75 percent improvement in their psoriasis, as measured by the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI 75).
In addition, 52 percent achieved PASI 90, and 20% achieved total skin clearance (PASI 100).
Also, of those who received just a single, 90 mg dose, 59% achieved PASI 75 and 16% achieved PASI 100, a standard of total clearance that many psoriasis patients have given up ever reaching.
Wow.
Now at this early stage of testing, we have still not seen long term safety data (obviously), but in the clinical trial, serious adverse events (requiring hospitalization) were observed in four percent of patients receiving CNTO 1275 (including a pair of heart attacks) compared with one percent of patients receiving placebo. Keep your fingers crossed. You can read more about the CNTO 1275 Phase Two study here.
UPDATE: We’ll give the last word (for now) to Dr. Richard Langley, a Canadian dermatologist who was involved in the study:
Most surprising, Dr. Langley said in an interview, was that the effects of the antibody lasted for three or four months, while the drug itself only lasts in the body for two weeks.“We’ve never seen a drug that had this kind of effect with a single dose,” he said. “The fact that it worked so quickly, it worked so well and it lasted so long has not been seen to this point.”
UPDATE TWO: The Philadelphia Inquirer picked up our thoughts on this trial and the many other trials we have identified:
“The notion that a single, simple injection of this experimental treatment wipes psoriasis off a significant proportion of test subjects is a stunning development,” said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, in a statement.The Kensington, Md., group said that more than 70 potential psoriasis treatments are in development by pharmaceutical companies.
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