Infliximab licensed for psoriasis
Psoriasis improved with infliximab |
Infliximab (Remicade) has been licensed for the treatment of psoriasis.
The additional indication, for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque
psoriasis in adults who failed to respond to, have a contraindication
to or are intolerant of other systemic therapy, follows a phase III trial,
the results of which were published in The Lancet last week (2005;366:1367).
In the study, 378 patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis received
either infliximab 5mg/kg or placebo. Infusions were given at the start
of the trial, at weeks 2 and 6 and then every eight weeks for 40 weeks.
(At week 24, placebo-treated patients were switched to infliximab treatment.)
After 10 weeks of treatment, 80 per cent of patients treated with infliximab
showed a 75 per cent improvement in their symptoms from baseline, compared
with 3 per cent in the placebo group. This improvement was maintained
after 50 weeks of treatment in 61 per cent of the infliximab-treated
patients. In addition, complete clearing of skin psoriasis was seen in
26 per cent of the infliximab group after 10 weeks, but in none of the
patients in the placebo group.
Infliximab was generally well tolerated, although adverse events were
more common in the infliximab-treated group (82 per cent experienced
an adverse event, compared with 71 per cent of the placebo group). Also,
the maintenance response was affected by patients developing antibodies
to infliximab — only 39 per cent of antibody-positive patients
maintained 75 per cent improvements in symptoms after 50 weeks of treatment,
compared with 81 per cent of antibody-negative patients and 96 per cent
of patients whose results were inconclusive.
Notice-board p509 |
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