Eli Lilly Korea (CEO: Paul Henry Huibers) said it would launch its psoriasis therapy Taltz (ingredient: ixekizumab) in the domestic market on June 1.

Taltz was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in December 2017 to treat moderate to severe psoriasis in adults requiring phototherapy or systemic therapy.

The therapy is a biologic agent that inhibits the interleukin 17A protein, which causes inflammation of psoriasis and serves as the cause of autoimmune diseases.

Taltz

Eli Lilly Korea said that it would dedicate a sales force to Taltz that would be the largest in the biologic psoriasis therapy market in Korea.

The safety and efficacy of therapy were proved in IXORA-S, UNCOVER-2 and UNCOVER-3 trials, the company said.

The IXORA-S study pitted Taltz against Stelara (ingredient: ustekinumab) on patients with moderate to severe psoriasis. Findings showed 72.8 percent of patients in the Taltz arm achieved a PASI 90 score while 42.2 percent in the Stelara did the same.

The UNCOVER-2 and UNCOVER-3 trials showed Taltz to bring about superior results compared to Enbrel (ingredient: etanercept).

In the UNCOVER-2 trial, around 70 percent of patients administered with Taltz achieved a PASI 90 score while 18.7 percent who got Enbrel achieved the same.

The results were similar for the UNCOVER-3 trial with 68.1 percent in the Taltz arm getting the PASI 90 score and 25.7 percent in the Enbrel arm reaching it, Eli Lilly Korea said.

yjc@docdocdoc.co.kr

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