Skin News

Wednesday, November 07, 2007 Smoking Blamed for 44% of Psoriasis Risk in Current Smokers, 27% of Risk in Past Smokers
Data from the Nurses Health Study II show that smoking plays a major role in causing psoriasis in women, that heavy smoking worsens psoriasis, and that risk reverts to normal only after 20 years of smoking cessation...

Monday, November 05, 2007 Manhattan Pharmaceuticals Initiates Phase IIa Study of Topical PTH (1-34) for Psoriasis
Manhattan Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a pharmaceutical company that acquires and develops drug candidates primarily for the treatment of dermatologic and immunologic disorders, announced that the first patient has received the initial dose of topical PTH (1-34) in a US multicenter, randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled, parallel group, phase IIa psoriasis study...

Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Prolonged IV Antibiotics Produce No Lasting Benefit in Post-Lyme Cognitive Problems
The fourth randomized clinical trial to test prolonged antibiotic therapy in patients previously treated for Lyme disease confirms the lack of lasting improvement in cognitive function reported in the early studies...

Thursday, October 11, 2007 Review Rejects "Chronic Lyme Disease" Diagnosis, Extended IV Antibiotics
A major review challenges "chronic Lyme disease" as a valid diagnosis and warns against extended use of IV antibiotics...

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 Centocor Reports Infrequently-Administered Subcutaneous Injection of Anti-IL-12/23 Antibody, Ustekinumab, Resulted in Long-Term PASI 75 Response in Phase III Study
Centocor, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, announced findings from an international, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study involving 1230 subjects...

Friday, October 05, 2007 Abbott's Anti-IL-12/23 Antibody, ABT-874, Shows Positive Results for Maintenance of Response in Phase II Psoriasis Study
Abbott Laboratories announced positive study data from an extension to a phase II study demonstrating that a majority of moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients who responded to anti-IL-12/23 (ABT-874) after 12 weeks of treatment maintained a high level of response at 24 weeks, following discontinuation of therapy...

Thursday, August 16, 2007 Welichem Initiates Phase I Clinical Trial of Topical Cream in Patients With Mild-to-Moderate Psoriasis
Welichem Biotech Inc, a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing therapeutic drugs in the fields of autoimmune diseases and cancer, announced the initiation of a phase I clinical trial of its antipsoriasis candidate WBI-1001, a small synthetic molecule compound originally isolated from bacterial metabolites, and formulated as a topical treatment...

Monday, August 13, 2007 Can B-Cell Depletion With Rituximab Trigger Psoriasis?
New case studies linking rituximab therapy for RA and SLE with new-onset psoriasis may call for caution on the ever-expanding use of the B-cell depleting drug...Dass S, et al. Arthritis Rheum. 2007;56:2715-2718.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Barrier Therapeutics Announces Positive Phase IIb Data With Oral Rambazoleâ„¢ in Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis


Barrier Therapeutics, Inc, announced positive results from its phase IIb dose-finding study of oral Rambazoleâ„¢, an investigational all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) metabolism blocking agent drug candidate, for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.

Monday, July 23, 2007 BioCryst, Roche Initiate Phase II Study of PNP Inhibitor for Psoriasis
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a leader in the use of crystallography and structure-based drug design for the development of novel therapeutics, announced the initiation of the first phase II study to evaluate BCX-4208/R3421, an orally available, small molecule, second generation transition-state analog inhibitor of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP).