A new experimental drug from Johnson & Johnson outperformed a rival in a recent study, a big win for the company in developing a new treatment for psoriasis, an unpleasant skin condition that afflicts millions of people.

The drug is called guselkumab, and it cleared the skin of 81 percent of patients after a little less than a year of treatment — much better than the 55 percent rate by rival Humira’s drug. Johnson & Johnson already has a drug, Stelara, that is approved for psoriasis, and it was their second best selling medication last year. Psoriasis is a common affliction that results in itchy, scaly skin.

Johnson & Johnson, which calls its new therapy treatment Remicade, competes with Humira for treatment of conditions that include psoriasis. Remicade tamps down the activity of a protein that causes inflammation, prompting the immune process to overreact with psoriasis.

The study examined 837 patients. About 4.9 percent on guselkumab reported serious side effects, compared to 4.5 percent on Humira.

“We are excited about the positive results released by our licensee Janssen with respect to guselkumab in the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis”, said Dr. Marlies Sproll, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys AG. “We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with Janssen and we are looking forward to the further updates about the development of guselkumab going forward.”