Lupus therapeutics boast blockbuster hopefuls as R&D continues, says GlobalData

Lupus therapeutics are lacking, and patients with moderate forms of the disease are greatly underserved, but help may yet be at hand, states an analyst at research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Two studies, announced at last week’s 2013 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Annual Congress meeting, provided further evidence that the only approved biologic for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) Benlysta (belimumab), is more effective in patients with high disease activity.

Toli Koutsokeras, GlobalData’s analyst covering immunology, explains: “Benlysta was forecast to be a blockbuster lupus therapeutic by 2014, after its 2011 approval made it the first drug to be approved for SLE in more than 50 years, but it captured only $106 million in 2012. However, GSK still holds hope that Benlysta can become a blockbuster drug, making big clinical research investments to evaluate the drug for use in SLE patients with Lupus Nephritis (LN), and eight other indications including myasthenia gravis, vasculitis, and kidney transplantation.”