Novartis' psoriasis rivals tout impressive data with next-gen treatments

Novartis ($NVS) became the first to win approval among a scrum of drugmakers with new antibody treatments for autoimmune disease, but its rivals are bounding toward the FDA with positive data of their own. At the annual American Academy of Dermatology meeting, Boehringer Ingelheim unveiled promising data on its injected treatment, while Pfizer ($PFE) heralded psoriasis results with its autoimmune drug Xeljanz. Each hopes to outpace Novartis' recently approved Cosentyx and contend with candidates from Eli Lilly ($LLY), Merck ($MRK), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), and partners Amgen ($AMGN) and AstraZeneca ($AZN). Story