Long-Awaited New Drug for Psoriasis Is Approved

A unique drug that targets renegade immune cells to control hard-to-treat psoriasis won Food and Drug Administration approval Friday, offering a long-awaited new option to patients with the itchy skin disease.

Called Amevive, the drug has been eagerly awaited by physicians because it works differently from the many other psoriasis treatments that are on the market.

Amevive has not yet been compared with any other treatments, so there’s no way to know whether it will prove a better option for patients, the FDA cautioned.

About 1.5 million Americans have moderate to severe psoriasis.

While it’s not yet curable, many are searching for new options to control the stubborn disease that can cover much of the skin in red, scaly, itchy patches. Particularly severe forms also can cause a type of arthritis.

Amevive, which comes in intravenous and intramuscular injection forms, will begin selling Monday, said maker Biogen Inc. It will cost $7,000 to $10,000 for a 12-week course of treatment; each weekly dose is given in a doctor’s office.

Psoriasis is thought to form when the immune system runs amok and cells called memory effector T cells prompt skin inflammation.

Current treatments available for psoriasis range from ointments to ultraviolet therapy to other injected drugs that can broadly suppress the immune system.

Amevive, known chemically as alefacept, was designed to target only the harmful T cells, not the rest of the immune system.