Findings from the trial, named EXPRESS II, showed that Remicade (infliximab) maintenance therapy every eight weeks resulted in greater long-term skin clearance compared with ‘as-needed’ therapy regimens within each studied dose.
At week 10, after infusions at weeks zero, two and six, 70% of patients treated with Remicade 3mg/kg and 75% of patients receiving 5mg/kg achieved at least 75% improvement in psoriasis as measured by the psoriasis area severity index (PASI 75), compared with just 2% of patients receiving placebo.
At week 50, patients receiving Remicade 5mg/kg every eight weeks as maintenance therapy achieved the highest level of sustained PASI improvement, with the majority of the patients achieving PASI 75 versus the Remicade 3mg/kg eight-week maintenance therapy and the Remicade 3mg/kg and 5mg/kg ‘as-needed’ therapy regimens.
“We now have data showing that the majority of patients receiving scheduled Remicade maintenance therapy achieved long-term clinical response in psoriasis, a lifelong, chronic inflammatory disease,” said Dr Alan Menter, chairman of the division of dermatology at Baylor University Medical Center, and lead study investigator. “These findings support previous clinical results and show that patients treated with Remicade achieved rapid and marked improvement in the moderate to severe category of psoriasis, which impacts the lives of nearly two million Americans.”