NAPSR News: Amgen & AstraZeneca’s psoriasis treatment reveals positive results in Phase III trials

WASHINGTON - Nov. 13, 2014 - PRLog -- AstraZeneca and Amgen’s investigational psoriasis treatment brodalumab posted successful results from the AMAGINE-3TM multi-arm Phase III trial. Over 1,800 patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis were treated with two doses of brodalumab and clinical data revealed the experimental treatment met its primary endpoints compared to both Stelara® (ustekinumab) and placebo at week 12.  Brodalumab works by binding to the interleukin-17 (IL-17) receptor thus inhibiting inflammatory signaling by blocking the binding of several IL-17 cytokines (A, F, A/F and C) to the receptor.  The IL-17 receptor and cytokine family play a pivotal role in the progress and medical manifestation of plaque psoriasis. The primary endpoint was achieved due to total skin clearance measured the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI 100) compared to the Stelara treatment.  When treated with the placebo,  75 percent of patients showed significant improvement from baseline in disease severity at week 12 (PASI 75). Brodalumab’s success from the trials stems from patients achieving clear to almost clear skin by week 12. All key secondary endpoints comparing brodalumab with Stelara and placebo were also met.

“Despite a variety of treatment options available for psoriasis, many patients still do not meet skin clearance goals,” said Sean E. Harper, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Amgen. “These results are of particular importance as they are the first to demonstrate superiority to Stelara in achieving total skin clearance, and the second positive pivotal Phase III study evaluating brodalumab in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.”

“These results add to the growing body of evidence supporting the potential value that brodalumab may bring to the treatment of psoriasis by targeting the IL-17 receptor,” said Briggs Morrison, Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer, AstraZeneca. “We look forward to sharing results later this year from AMAGINE-2TM, our remaining head-to-head study evaluating brodalumab versus Stelara.”

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