"Johnson  Johnsons Stelara helped a significantly higher percentage of Crohns disease sufferers than those who received a placebo according to a study of patients who had not been helped by other commonly used drugs.  In addition nearly  percent of patients who stayed on Stelara beyond the initial six weeks of the midstage study continued to respond to the drug and there was a significantly higher rate of remission at  weeks than in a placebo group.  Stelara known chemically as ustekinumab is already approved to treat the skin condition plaque psoriasis and is in latestage testing for psoriatic arthritis. An approval for Crohns would give the drug entry into an estimated . billion U.S. market and . billion market worldwide.  The intravenous biotech drug met the primary goal of the study as almost  percent of patients who received the  milligrams per kilogram of weight dose of Stelara achieved a clinical response  defined as a point reduction in the Crohns Disease Activity Index CDAI  after six weeks of treatment.  That compared with a response rate of . percent of patients who received a placebo.  Two lower doses of Stelara were also tested in the study of  patients with moderate to severe Crohns disease who were not helped by or could not tolerate treatment with a widely used class of drugs known as TNF antagonists such as Abbott Laboratories Humira.  Those who received  mgkg had a . percent response rate and the  mgkg dose led to a . percent response rate.  To see these kind of outcomes where you have high response rates in the short term and then good remission rates out toward five or six months of therapy it shows unequivocally that the drug is effective for treating Crohns disease said Dr. William Sandborn the studys lead investigator who presented the data at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in Chicago on Sunday.   Its effective in the patient population that has the greatest unmet need at this point in time Sandborn said of patients who do not respond to antiTNF drugs.  He said a point drop in the CDAI was clinically meaningful to patients. Theyll feel measurably better.  The patient population was really quite ill and had very high disease activity and despite that we saw nice response rates Sandborn said.  In a second phase of the study those who responded to Stelara after six weeks of treatment were given either a mg injection of Stelara at week eight and week  or a placebo.  After  weeks . percent of the Stelara patients maintained a clinical response and . percent were deemed to be in clinical remission. That compared with . percent who maintained a clinical response and a . percent remission rate in the placebo group.  Clinical remission was defined as a CDAI score down to . Patients in the study on average started at  or  on the CDAI scale researchers said.  Crohns is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that affects an estimated  Americans. Common symptoms are abdominal pain and diarrhea and it can lead to bowel perforations. Many Crohns patients require surgery when medicines no longer control symptoms.  The rate of infections and other serious side effects was similar in the Stelara and placebo groups researchers said.  Well need more patients and longerterm data to really fully characterize the safety profile in Crohns disease but so far so good Sandborn said.  Reporting by Bill Berkrot Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Dale Hudson Our StandardsThe Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. httpthomsonreuters.comenaboutustrustprinciples.html"