Johnson & Johnson could have a potent contender for treating psoriasis.
The company reported late-stage results showing that the experimental biotech drug guselkumab was more effective at clearing moderate to severe cases of the skin condition when compared with a placebo or rival treatment Humira.
Over 73 percent of patients who received J&J’s drug experienced almost complete skin clearance, reported Reuters. An estimated 50 percent of patients taking Humira saw near-complete skin clearance versus 2.9 percent in the placebo group.
There was a small percentage of patients in each group who experienced adverse side effects like serious infections.
Overall, guselkumab achieved its primary end goal illustrating its superior efficacy for 16 weeks of treatment maintaining its advantage through week 48. Plus, the drug scored higher than its counterparts when it came to improving quality of life, wrote Reuters.
This poses another threat to AbbVie’s dominance with Humira, which is the world’s top-selling autoimmune treatment. A biosimilar of Humira was approved last week, but the company’s legal wrangling could complicate the drug’s eventual launch, according to FierceBiotech.
J&J announced this new data at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology Congress in Vienna, Austria.
