AstraZeneca lupus drug shows promise after set-back last year (updated)

Neovacs SA

29/08/2019 08:08

(Adds details on drug, rivals)
    Aug 29 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc  AZN.L  said on Thursday
its experimental drug to treat moderate-to-severe lupus met the
main goal in a late-stage study, an encouraging sign after it
failed to meet its main target in the final stage of another
trial last year.
    The British drugmaker said anifrolumab under the TULIP 2
program helped patients with systemic lupus erythematosus,
commonly known as SLE.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nRSc5254Ka
    The drug had failed to meet its main goal in the final stage
of one of the two clinical trials under the TULIP program last
year https://in.reuters.com/article/us-astrazeneca-anifrolumab/astrazeneca-lupus-drug-fails-to-meet-main-goal-in-study-idINKCN1LG0MM.
  
    "These are important results and we will now review the full
data set and explore pathways to bring this potential new
treatment to patients," said Mene Pangalos, executive vice
president BioPharmaceuticals R&D, adding that only one new
treatment has been approved for the disease in the last 60
years. 
    SLE is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system
attacks healthy tissue in the body, with about five million
people affected globally, according to the Lupus Foundation of
America.
    AstraZeneca has been in a race with GlaxoSmithKline  GSK.L 
and French biotech company Neovacs  ALNEV.PA  to create new
treatments for lupus.
    GSK received https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-receives-us-approval-of-benlysta-for-intravenous-use-in-children-with-lupus-aged-five-years-and-above
 U.S. approval for Benlysta, the first new treatment for lupus
in more than half a century, for intravenous use in children
with lupus aged five years and above in April.
    Anifrolumab, which is also given intravenously, is designed
for patients with moderate-to-severe lupus and works by
targeting interferon, a protein involved in inflammation.

 (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by
Sriraj Kalluvila, Bernard Orr)
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