Novartis AG said Cosentyx helped reduce the symptoms of a certain form of arthritis that affects the spine and pelvis, meeting the main goal of a late-stage study.
The ongoing phase 3 trial, dubbed Prevent, is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of Cosentyx in treating 555 patients with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, or nr-AxSpA, a condition of abnormal immune response that causes inflammation in the spine and pelvis. In nr-AxSpA, the disease causes symptoms, but joint damage is not visible on X-ray.
After 52 weeks of treatment, patients treated with Cosentyx demonstrated a significant and clinically meaningful reduction in disease activity. The drug's safety profile was consistent with other previous studies, and no new safety signals were identified, Novartis noted.
The Swiss drugmaker plans to present detailed data from Prevent at a future scientific congress.
Cosentyx is already approved for psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis in more than 70 countries.
