A leading pharmaceutical company, Novartis, is confident about their new injectable drug called Cosentx that shows promise as a new potent drug for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on January this year because of its effectiveness in treating the skin disorder.
The Swiss company believes that the new drug could surpass annual sale forecasts as their new clinical data shows that the drug could treat psoriasis as well as related complications of the disease specifically psoriatic arthritis, Tech Times reports.
According to Reuters, their study was published in the journal The Lancet on Monday and their findings show that it could significantly act on psoriatic arthritis and was sustained for one year.
Apparently, the drug is given just once a month. Psoriatic arthritis is an inflammatory complication of the disease characterized by joint pain, joint stiffness, swollen fingers and toes. Also, the skin and nails are affected. This is an irreversible joint damage caused by the auto-immune skin disease.
The announcement on Monday entails a green light from the FDA as well as the results of their Phase III Future 2 study. They believe that the product could eventually reach the market and produce large sales because of its efficacy.
"These are sizeable indications," Vas Narasimhan, global head of development for Novartis Pharma, told Reuters.
"The global market for biological drugs in these diseases is around $12 billion to $13 billion and growing at a double-digit rate. So when you look at the profile Cosentyx has demonstrated, we believe we can generate the data for this drug to be used as first-line treatment across these indications and achieve that sales level," he added.
This complication is shown to emerge in 30 percent of patients with psoriasis. Also, between 0.3 and 1 percent of the population has psoriatic arthritis.