Cosentyx narrowly misses superiority vs Humira in head-to-head psoriatic arthritis trial

Cosentyx (secukinumab) “narrowly missed” achieving statistical significance for superiority compared to Humira (adalimumab) in the EXCEED head-to-head psoriatic arthritis trial.

While Cosentyx helped more patients numerically reach ACR20 – a benchmark on a commonly used scale from the American College of Rheumatology to measure joint swelling and more – its lead wasn’t statistically relevant, Novartis said.

“We view the results as confirming our vision of Cosentyx becoming standard of care in psoriatic arthritis,” Eric Hughes, Novartis’ global development head of immunology, hepatology and dermatology, said in a statement.

Cosentyx’s competitor – Lilly’s fellow IL17A drug Taltz – demonstrated superiority vs Humira last year in its own head-to-head study. In a study of psoriatic arthritis patients who hadn not yet been treated with a biologic, patients treated with Taltz showed more symptom improvement at week 24 than those who had taken Humira.

Lilly didn’t necessarily succeed specifically where Novartis failed. The trials were designed differently, and Novartis’ study was “the first-ever monotherapy head-to-head trial with a primary endpoint in psoriatic arthritis specific to joints,” Hughes’ statement said.

When it comes to psoriatic arthritis, Pfizer’s Xeljanz (Tofacitinib) is also a competitor in addition to its fellow JAK inhibitor Rinvoq (upadacitinib) from AbbVie which recently met primary and secondary endpoints in Phase III study in psoriatic arthritis.

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