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A guy talking about his skin problem. Sounds almost sissy, says Perry Caleval, unless you have psoriasis or know somebody who does. Then you know how serious it is.
Caleval's psoriasis, which covered 70 per cent of his body, was so embarrassing, he stopped wearing shorts and going to public swimming pools for 17 years. He couldn't be dressed casually in public, he explains, "because people got scared. They'd think you were a leper or something. Little kids would look at you and ask 'What's wrong with him? Does he have flesh-eating disease?' "
When Caleval visited people he always checked their couch before leaving to make sure he hadn't left dead skin behind. And every workday ended with him sweeping up piles of skin flakes that had fallen on the floor around his desk and chair. Caleval says he did it because he didn't want people to see it or janitors to have to put up with it.

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This is an odd story that describes a new investigational psoriasis treatment, without ever naming it. Also this article makes no mention of the types of trials or the evidence behind the use of this agent other than reporting on one person with severe psoriasis who appeared to have used it with success. One wonders why the story was written, or who prompted the reporter to write it. To promote recruitment? To heighten demand for the drug when its identity is revealed? Is this a phase III trial? If so, information about the trial should be publicly available, as is now required for most clinical trials in Canada.
Other similar agents from the class of biologics have been shown to be effective in some patients. It is unknown if this new product provides any advantage over the other agents in this class.

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