Sun, pivoting to specialty pharma, wins psoriasis nod for Ilumya. Can it hang with J&J?
FiercePharma | March 22, 2018
Sun Pharma’s $80 million psoriasis licensing deal with Merck & Co. just paid off with an FDA approval. But now, another challenge begins: The new med will go up against established psoriasis player Johnson & Johnson. The FDA has officially green-lighted the Indian drugmaker’s Ilumya, an IL-23 inhibitor, to treat the skin plaque disease, Sun said Wednesday. It’s “sort of a flagship product” for the company, which has only recently pivoted its focus to spec pharma after many years on the generics scene, Chief Medical Officer Simon Lowry said in an interview.