Novartis arthritis drug fails to prove it is significantly better than rival

ZURICH (Reuters) – A clinical trial of Novartis’s Cosentyx drug has failed to prove it is significantly better than a rival treatment for a type of arthritis, the Swiss company said on Friday.

Novartis said Cosentyx, when used to treat active psoriatic arthritis, “narrowly missed statistical significance for superiority” versus Humira, a drug made by AbbVie.

“While Cosentyx narrowly missed statistical significance for superiority…. it showed numerically higher results versus Humira,” Novartis said following the results of a head-to-head trial.

Psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory disease affecting the joints, is a condition which affects around 50 million people worldwide.

This week U.S. regulators halted a trial of Novartis’s Zolgensma treatment after an animal study raised safety concerns.