(Reuters) – Bristol Myers Squibb Co said on Tuesday its experimental plaque psoriasis oral drug proved more effective in clearing moderate to severe cases of the skin condition than placebo or Amgen Inc’s Otezla in a late-stage study.
The drug, deucravacitinib, met both main goals of the study by reducing the extent and severity of psoriasis after 16 weeks of treatment in a far greater percentage of patients than in the group that received placebo.
A significantly higher proportion of patients receiving deucravacitinib achieved at least a 75% improvement in psoriasis as measured by a scale known as the Psoriasis Area Severity Index.
The drug also met a secondary goal of being more effective than Otezla in proportion of patients showing improvement at week 16.
A second late-stage trial comparing the drug to placebo and Otezla is currently underway, with results expected in the first quarter of 2021.
Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory disorder that results in sometimes painful, unsightly scaly and inflamed skin patches.
It affects 7.5 million Americans and is the most prevalent autoimmune disease in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
