Biotech firms report progress with psoriasis treatments at AAD meeting

This year's American Academy of Dermatology meeting has seen a string ofbiotechnology companies report positive results with the new biologic treatments for psoriasis. Amongst them was Biogen, which reported that patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis who were retreated with its intravenously-administered Amevive (alefacept) drug exhibited a similar response to an initial course of treatment.

Amevive's safety and efficacy in psoriasis has already been reported in an earlier Phase II study (Marketletter December 13, 1999), but the follow-on study presented at the AAD meeting is important because it shows that the drug, which is designed for intermittent dosing, does not appear to lose efficacy after the first course. There is always a risk that a large antibody-based molecule such as Amevive will see its activity reduced on subsequent doses through mechanisms such as the generation of neutralizing antibodies.

Amevive's long-term effects reported