New drug offers hope for lupus patients

New drug offers hope for lupus patients

July 28th, 2009 by Valerie Chavez

Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline announced positive results
July 21 from a yearlong clinical trial of Benlysta for treating lupus.
Lupus patients treated with Benlysta had improvement in overall disease
activity without clinically significant flare-ups in one or more
isolated organs when compared with patients who received the placebo.

Patients receiving the drug also were able to reduce their intake
of steroid medications. The study is the largest ever to be completed
for lupus and the first successful Phase III (late stage) trial of a
new biologic immune therapy.

No new drugs to treat lupus have been developed
and approved in more than 50 years, said Sandra Raymond, president and
CEO of the Lupus Foundation of America.

"These results provide hope that this complex chronic autoimmune
disease can be brought under control and that, eventually, a cure can
be found for the estimated 1.5 million Americans and more than 5
million people worldwide living with lupus," Raymond said last week in
a statement. If the FDA approves Benlysta, it will be the first drug
successfully developed to specifically treat lupus since the disease
was discovered more than a century ago.

LINK: http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2009/07/new_drug_offers_hope_for_lupus.html

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  • Mike

    that's great for all the unlucky people like myself with organ involvement

    30 months ago

  • Jayne

    I'm so happy that this story was all over the news in the past week or so awareness wise! Also because it should help about 300,000 lupus patients, unfortunately not me :(  I talked with my doctor and this is a treatment for patients with mild to moderate lupus and I am in the severe category....could've used this 10 years ago!!!! But hey, now is better then never! I hope it helps many many others and brings more help in the future to lupus

    30 months ago

  • Pamela

    I AM THRILLED THAT THEY ARE FINALLY WORKING ON A NEW TREATMENT FOR LUPUS PATIENT.  WHEN I WAS DIAGNOSED IN 1989, THE ONLY TREATMENT WAS STEROIDS.  I AM VERY HAPPY THAT LUPUS PATIENTS WITH MODERATE INVOLVEMENT WILL HAVE MORE OPTIONS.

    PAMELA

    30 months ago

  • Barb

    Oh, I cannot wait to try it!  I'm so excited that there's a new drug for us that may actually DO something!!! Thank God - another step toward controlling and curing SLE!

    30 months ago

  • wrightrs

    This is great news. Can't wait to try it. Hope it's approved.

    30 months ago

  • Sarah

    this is great news! i really hope it does what it says it can do if it gets approved and lupus people start taking it. thats good to hear they are actually working on something for people like us.

    28 months ago

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