In clinical trials of a new drug designed to treat psoriasis, the medication has already shown quick and extensive improvement of the disease, bringing hope to thousands of people suffering from the skin condition.

Details of the trial were published in the journal The Lancet and showed that 40 percent of people reported a complete clearance of psoriatic plaques after just 12 weeks of treatment, and over 90 percent showed improvement using the drug.

People who suffer from psoriasis develop thick, red skin with flaky, silver-white patches called scales that can be itchy and uncomfortable to people suffering from the skin condition.

"The visible effects of psoriasis can have a major and life-ruining impact on people's confidence and self-esteem," said lead researcher of the study Chris Griffiths, professor of dermatology at University of Manchester in Britain.

For the trial, researchers tested 2,500 people suffering from psoriasis. Half of the group was given a new drug, known as ixekizumab, either once every two weeks or once every four weeks. The other half was given a placebo, or a widely-used drug currently on the market for psoriasis called etanercept.

About half of the patients in the trial showed improvement as early as week four of the trial, and about 71 percent of participants had shown a high level of improvement by week twelve of the clinical trial. Researchers determined the improvements made by patients based on a scale called the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index.

"What we saw in this trial was not just the physical aspects of the disease clearing up, but people on the new drug also reporting a marked improvement in their quality of life as they felt more confident and suffered less from itching -- far more than in the other two groups," Griffiths says.

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease that speeds up the growth of skin cells. Anyone can get psoriasis, but it occurs most often in adults. According to the International Federation of Psoriasis Associations (IFPA), about three percent of the world's population has some form of psoriasis. In the United States, there are about 150,000 new cases every year, affecting about two percent of the population.

Ixekizumab is a monoclonal antibody, or a cloned antibody, which neutralizes the inflammatory effects of an interleukin protein in the skin that is used to carry signals to cells. This protein has increasingly become recognized as one of the causes of the characteristic red, scaly plaques that form on the skin as a result of the disorder.