From the Popular Press: What Your Patients are Reading:

A recent Canadian trial yielded favorable results for the use of ISA247 in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis. ISA247 inhibits calcineurin, a protein that acts to regulate inflammation, and is given as an oral dose in pill form. The drug may prove to be safer than ciclosporin, another calcineurin inhibitor that is currently one of the most effective psoriasis treatments available, but has adverse effects on patients’ kidneys. Infliximab, another popular psoriasis treatment, is less convenient and more expensive than the proposed ISA247 pill. In the trial, higher doses of ISA247 had greater rates of efficacy. Thus, dosage can be adjusted according to each patient’s individual needs. After 12 weeks of treatment with the highest dose of ISA247, 47% of patients achieved a 75% reduction in severity and area covered by psoriasis. Only 4 patients receiving placebo achieved such reduction. Because psoriasis symptoms tend to reappear when treatment is discontinued, and the adverse effects associated with other psoriasis treatments generally surface after long-term use, more research needs to be conducted on ISA247 to determine if its safety and efficacy hold up in a longer trial. A trial directly comparing ISA247 to ciclosporin has also been called for.

Read the full text of this article on healthday.com