A Japanese pharmaceutical company announced Thursday that its experimental treatment for psoriasis, developed using artificial intelligence technology, demonstrated superior performance against an existing medication in a major clinical study.
The drugmaker said its investigational once-daily pill, zasocitinib, successfully met the primary endpoint of a late-stage trial involving adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, showing better skin clearance results than Bristol Myers Squibb’s approved medication Sotyktu following 16 weeks of treatment.
Plaque psoriasis represents a chronic immune-mediated condition affecting the skin, resulting in red, scaly, and inflamed patches across the body.
The development of zasocitinib utilized artificial intelligence technology, part of an increasing movement within the pharmaceutical sector to employ AI for accelerating drug discovery, reducing clinical trial durations, and minimizing animal testing requirements.
According to the company, zasocitinib delivered complete skin clearance for 35% of trial participants after 16 weeks, representing more than 2.5 times the success rate observed with Sotyktu.
The pharmaceutical firm also reported that zasocitinib’s safety profile remained consistent with previous studies, with no additional safety concerns identified during the trial.
The daily oral medication provides a practical treatment alternative for plaque psoriasis patients, joining Bristol Myers’ Sotyktu and Amgen’s Otezla in a therapeutic area primarily controlled by injectable treatments.
The company views zasocitinib as a potentially major revenue generator to help compensate for anticipated income losses from upcoming patent expirations for its inflammatory bowel disease treatment Entyvio, which faces key patent losses by the decade’s end.
Last year, the drugmaker projected that zasocitinib, pending regulatory approval, could achieve peak yearly sales between $3 billion and $6 billion.
The pharmaceutical company obtained zasocitinib through its acquisition of Nimbus Therapeutics in 2022, in a transaction worth up to $6 billion.
The company stated it plans to share comprehensive trial data at future medical conferences and continues working toward submitting FDA approval applications for zasocitinib as a plaque psoriasis treatment during this fiscal year.
