AstraZeneca reported positive results this week from a late-stage lupus study.
According to the company, its medication, anifrolumab, succeeded at improving disease activity for 47.8 percent of patients with moderate-to-severe systems lupus (SLE) after 52 weeks. SLE, a chronic inflammatory condition that can sometimes be fatal, impacts about five million people worldwide.
Only one drug has been approved to treat the condition in the past 60 years — GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta, which pulled in nearly $608 million in sales last year.
AZ also reported that more than half of the patients taking anifrolumab were able to reduce their use of oral corticosteroids, which are taken to control inflammation associated with the disease.
Read the Reuters report.
