Professor Luke O'Neill

And Vijay Kushru in Harvard, another friend of mine, he did loads of work on IL-17.

And they did some of the fundamental immunology behind it.

Drug companies block it.

And the one disease that responded was psoriasis.

They tried to block IL-17 and other autoimmune diseases.

Didn't work that well.

But lo and behold, psoriasis was the one.

And now, if you treat people with severe psoriasis with a drug to block IL-17, all the lesions clear up.

There's 80-90% response to blocking IL-17.

The main drug is called Cosentix.

That's the trade name.

There's several of them out there.

The issue with these drugs is they work great.

They've got to be injected and that can be a bit uncomfortable.

Secondly, they will suppress the immune system because IL-17 has a day job in the immune system and there's a minor risk of infection, especially fungal infections, strangely.

These aren't severe enough to stop people using them, especially if it's severe psoriasis.

They won't be used in the milder form because you've got to live with that, kind of, you know.

So, and by the way, before I give you more on that, steroids can be used.

Steroids are wonderful anti-inflammatory drugs.

They can be rubbed into