Takeda’s AI-crafted psoriasis pill tops Bristol Myers’ Sotyktu in head-to-head trial

June 11 (Reuters) – Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical said on Thursday its experimental once-daily psoriasis pill, developed with the help of AI, outperformed Bristol Myers Squibb’s approved drug Sotyktu in a late-stage head-to-head study.

Here are some details:

• The Japanese drugmaker said the drug, zasocitinib, met the main goal of a late-stage trial in adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, achieving greater skin clearance than Sotyktu after 16 weeks of treatment.

• Plaque psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease that causes red, scaly, inflamed patches on the skin.

• Zasocitinib was developed using artificial intelligence, reflecting a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry to use AI to speed drug development, shorten clinical trial timelines and reduce animal testing.

• Takeda said zasocitinib achieved complete skin clearance in 35% of patients after 16 weeks, more than 2.5 times the rate seen with Sotyktu.

• The company also said zasocitinib’s safety profile was consistent with earlier studies and no new safety issues were identified.

• Takeda’s daily pill offers a convenient option to treat plaque psoriasis, alongside Bristol Myers’ Sotyktu and Amgen’s Otezla, in a market largely dominated by injectables.

• The drugmaker is counting on zasocitinib as a potential blockbuster to help offset a revenue gap from the looming patent cliff for its inflammatory bowel disease drug Entyvio, which is expected to lose key patents by the end of the decade.

• Takeda said last year that it expects zasocitinib, if approved, to generate peak annual sales in the range of $3 billion to $6 billion.

• The drugmaker had acquired zasocitinib from Nimbus Therapeutics in 2022 in a deal valued at up to $6 billion.

• Takeda said it will present detailed data at upcoming medical meetings and remains on track to begin seeking FDA approval for zasocitinib to treat plaque psoriasis this fiscal year.

(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)