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news.Novartis has reported positive results from its Phase III trials MEASURE 1 and MEASURE 2 of its investigational medicine AIN457 (secukinumab) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
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The trials met primary and key secondary endpoints, which included improvements in signs and symptoms of the disease versus placebo and associated improvements in physical function and quality of life.
Secukinumab works by stopping the action of interleukin-17A (IL-17A), a protein that is central to the development of inflammatory diseases, including AS.
About 600 patients with AS, a common type of spondyloarthropathy (SpA), have been enrolled in both the MEASURE 1 and MEASURE 2 trials.
SpA is a family of long-term diseases impacting joints (inflammatory diseases), which includes other conditions such as psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
Novartis Pharmaceuticals global head of Development Vasant Narasimhan said the company is happy to see positive results with secukinumab in AS, a gravely debilitating condition with a significant remaining unmet need as up to 40% of patients do not respond to anti-TNF therapies.
"With these results in AS and the recently announced positive results in psoriatic arthritis, we now have data from four Phase III trials of secukinumab in spondyloarthropathies which we look forward to presenting at a congress later this year," Narasimhan said.
The secukinumab results in AS follow positive top-line data in PsA reported in September, and the company is planning for a joint regulatory filing of secukinumab in AS and PsA in 2015.
Image: Novartis AG headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Photo: courtesy of Andrew.