Anifrolumab Shows Benefit in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

A new post-hoc analysis of pooled data from the TULIP Phase III clinical trials being presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2021) showed anifrolumab was consistently associated with improvements in both skin rash and arthritis across three different disease measures each, compared to placebo, in patients with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Joan Merrill, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program, US, said: “Arthritis and rash are the most common and persistent problems in lupus and often have a significant impact on a person's life. The strength of the data from this analysis is that anifrolumab was found to be consistently effective using three different ways of looking at rash and three different approaches to arthritis. Capturing multiple aspects of improvement increases confidence that anifrolumab may be an important option for patients.”

AstraZeneca’s application for anifrolumab in SLE is under review by regulatory authorities in the US, EU and Japan, with decisions anticipated in the second half of 2021. Anifrolumab is not currently approved in any country.