FACTS:
Lupus, a potentially fatal autoimmune disorder that affects roughly 5 million people worldwide, still has no known cause or cure. Over the last 60 years, only one drug has been approved by the USDA, and it came with a whole lot of awful side effects. According to the most recent tests of a new drug called Anifrolumab, compared to a placebo, participants who took the drug saw a statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction in the disease. Not only only did this drug reduce autoimmune activity in the relevant organs of many of the treated patients, it also reduced the rate of flare-ups – which include fever, painful joints, fatigue and rashes – and lessened the need for steroids.
QUOTES:
Mene Pangalos, the executive vice president of BioPharmaceutical R&D:
“There is now a strong body of evidence demonstrating the benefit of anifrolumab, and we look forward to bringing this potential new medicine to patients with systemic lupus erythematosus as soon as possible,”
Rheumatologist and lead researcher Eric Morand from Monash University:
“Measurement of treatment response in [systemic lupus erythematosus] has been very problematic and this represents a kind of second breakthrough of this trial,” … “These exciting results from the TULIP 2 trial demonstrate that, by targeting the type I interferon receptor, anifrolumab reduced disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.”
SOURCE:
To read the source for this article from the New England Journal of Medicine, click here.
