Centocor, Inc. has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved Remicade (infliximab) to reduce the signs and symptoms of active arthritis in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

This marks the ninth time the FDA has approved a new indication for Remicade, which has now achieved approvals in the treatment of such inflammatory diseases as Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. First approved in 1998 for Crohn's disease, Remicade has been used to treat over a half a million patients worldwide.

An immune-mediated inflammatory disease, psoriatic arthritis affects approximately one million men and women in the US and is often characterized by the complex symptoms of joint inflammation (arthritis) and skin lesions (psoriasis).

Arthur Kavanaugh, professor of Medicine at University of California at San Diego says, "Study results show that patients treated with REMICADE rapidly achieved profound improvement in arthritis symptoms and dramatically improved clearance in skin disease."