The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new oral treatment to treat plaque psoriasis caused by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) after a phase 3 clinical trial. The chemical name of the drug is deucravacitinib, and it will be sold under the brand name Sotyktu.
According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, around 125 million people across the world, which is around 2 to 3 percent of Earth’s population have psoriasis. Over 7.5 million of the affected people are adults living in the United States.
The common form of the disease is plaque psoriasis, a chronic skin condition affecting 80 to 90 percent of the people who have psoriasis. Around 30 percent of these people also develop psoriatic arthritis that damages joints.
While the US FDA approved the drug to treat plaque psoriasis, clinical trials are underway for use in treating psoriatic arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and lupus. Bristol-Myers Squibb has also filed for the approval of the drug in other regions outside the United States.
The disease caused painful, itchy, and burning silvery scales on the skin of a person, most commonly on the knees, scalp, and elbows. The appearance of the lesions varies with skin tone, and can be more challenging to diagnose on darker skin.
