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 The drugmaker said on Tuesday that the new treatment was more
effective than another drug, sifalimumab, that it had also been
testing in lupus. It has therefore started a 300 mg dose of
anifrolumab in a final-stage Phase III program.
Only one new drug - GlaxoSmithKline's Benlysta - has been introduced
for lupus in the past 60 years, underlining the difficulties of
tackling the condition, in which the immune system attacks joints
and organs.
AstraZeneca's anifrolumab, which is given intravenously, is designed
for patients with moderate to severe lupus and works in a different
way to Benlysta by targeting interferon, a protein involved in
inflammation.
Bing Yao, head of respiratory, inflammatory and autoimmune research
at AstraZeneca's biotech unit MedImmune, said anifrolumab had
produced the most robust effects yet seen with any lupus drug in a
mid-stage clinical study.
The Phase IIb test results, being presented at the American College
of Rheumatology annual meeting, showed anifrolumab 300 mg produced a
response in 34.4 percent of patients after 169 days of treatment and
this rose to more than 50 percent after a year.
"We have been eagerly awaiting clinical data of this magnitude for
many years," principal investigator Richard Furie, head of
rheumatology at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, said.
Anifrolumab also reduced the need for patients to take oral
corticosteroids.
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On the downside, there was an increase in patients reporting both
Herpes zoster, or shingles, and influenza. However, Yao said these
conditions were readily treated with antivirals.
In May 2014, during its defense against a takeover attempt by
Pfizer, AstraZeneca predicted that its interferon-based approach to
lupus could eventually generate annual sales of around $1 billion.
Yao declined to comment any further on likely sales.
Other companies with lupus drugs in development include Anthera
Pharmaceuticals and ImmuPharma. Another experimental product from
UCB recently failed in Phase III testing.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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