Psoriasis drugs show promise

Targeted medications effective at clearing skin condition

Web edition : 9:38 am

Two experimental drugs given to patients with psoriasis can clear the skin conditions characteristic thick, dry, red patches at unprecedented rates. The finding paves the way for the long-term clinical trials required for regulatory approval of the medications.

By toning down a key immune protein, the drugs wipe out many psoriasis plaques while showing few signs of side effects. Studies of the two drugs appear in the March 29 New England Journal of Medicine.

Provided major adverse effects dont turn up in long-term tests, the two medications have a bright future, says Andrew Blauvelt, an immunologist and dermatologist at the Oregon Medical Research Center in Portland. So far, these are looking like great drugs.

Craig Leonardi, a dermatologist at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, was part of both teams that tested the drugs, called ixekizumab and brodalumab. He and other researchers scored the severity of the patients psoriasis based on precise measurements of skin affected by the hallmark red plaques. A successful drug reduces a patients severity score by 75 percent.

All volunteers had had moderate to severe psoriasis affecting at least 10 percent of their bodies for six months. In one of the studies, Leonardi and his colleagues randomly assigned 142 patients to receive either ixekizumab or a placebo. In the other, 198 patients got brodalumab or placebo. In both studies, drugs and placebo were delivered as several injections spaced over 12 to 16 weeks, using various doses.

Both drugs reduced the psoriasis severity score by 75 percent in about four-fifths of patients getting a medium to high dose of either drug.

The drugs thwart the immune protein interleukin-17. In most people this protein plays a productive role, fending off bacterial and fungal infections, Blauvelt says. But people with psoriasis overproduce interleukin-17, which induces activation and growth of the outer-layer skin cells that make keratin. Only long-term testing, some of which is already under way, will establish that interleukin-17 activity can be suppressed by these new drugs indefinitely without risk of infection, Blauvelt says.

Each study was funded by the drugs manufacturer. Eli Lilly makes ixekizumab, and Amgen makes brodalumab.

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Psoriasis drugs show promise