Celgene reports positive clinical data for psoriatic arthritis drug

Celgene has reported positive clinical trial data that demonstrates the benefits its new drug apremilast can provide for psoriatic arthritis patients.

The company has announced results from Palace-2 and Palace-3, the second and third of three pivotal phase III trials, evaluating the drug among psoriatic arthritis patients who had received or failed oral disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and/or an anti-tumour necrosis factor agent.

Apremilast was able to deliver robust and statistically significant clinical benefits in terms of meeting American College of Rheumatology criteria for 20 percent improvement, thus fulfilling the primary endpoint goals of the trial.

These new results back up the promising conclusions of the Palace-1 trial, data from which was published earlier this year, while the safety performance of the drug was also shown to be strong.

All three of these trials remain ongoing and will help to support the company's efforts to seek regulatory approval of the compound next year.

According to the firm's most recent financial report in July 2012, Celgene generated sales of $1.37 billion (857.79 million pounds) in the second quarter of the year, up by 16 percent annually.