Novartis said a trial fell short of producing statistical evidence that its anti-inflammatory drug, Cosentyx, can beat the world's best-selling drug Humira in treating arthritis.
The drugmaker announced results from the EXCEED head-to-head trial comparing Cosentyx to AbbVie's Humira in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Cosentyx "narrowly missed statistical significance for superiority" over Humira.
According to Novartis, while Cosentyx narrowly missed the primary endpoint of the EXCEED trial, it showed numerically higher results versus Humira. Statistically significant advantages of Cosentyx versus Humira in PsA-specific endpoints were observed in a pre-specified sensitivity analysis.
The drugmaker is not deterred, however, stating, 'We will assess the EXCEED data in their totality and we view the results as confirming our vision of Cosentyx becoming standard of care in psoriatic arthritis.”
Read the press release
