Abbott drug maintains psoriasis relief in trial

NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - A high percentage of patients taking Abbott Laboratories Inc's (ABT.N) experimental psoriasis drug ABT-874 maintained an impressive improvement in symptoms 12 weeks after discontinuing treatment, the drugmaker said on Monday.

The company earlier this year presented initial data from the Phase II study, in which patients with moderate to severe cases of the inflammatory skin disease were treated with the injectable antibody for 12 weeks.

At least 90 percent of patients achieved 75 percent improvement in psoriasis symptoms at the end of the 12-week treatment period, the data showed, except for one group that received the smallest dose of the drug. That compared with such improvement in only 3 percent of those receiving placebos.

The patients were then monitored for another 12 weeks to assess the durability of their relief from symptoms, which include red scaly patches of skin.

At 24 weeks, or 12 weeks after treatment concluded, more than two-thirds of patients who initially had a 75 percent improvement in symptoms maintained at least a 50 percent improvement, the company said at a medical meeting in Buenos Aires. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)