The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) was awarded a one-year, $1 million grant from the Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop an education program on clinical trials that educates and recruits minorities and the disadvantaged, especially groups that are underrepresented in clinical research.
The Lupus Agencies of New York State (LANYS) announced two advocacy triumphs this legislative session — passage of the Lupus Education and Outreach Bill and a bill revising Step Therapy protocols — in both the state Senate and Assembly. If signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the bills will become law in New…
Dutch biopharmaceutical company Argenx recently reported initial data from its Phase 1 multiple ascending dose clinical trial of ARGX-113 in healthy volunteers. ARGX-113 is designed for the management of acute autoimmune crisis (sudden and severe onset of symptoms between periods of remission) and could potentially be used for many rare medical…
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals recently released an analysis of the first seven patients to complete 24 weeks in its open-label, exploratory AURION clinical trial to access the short-term predictors of response using voclosporin in combination with mycophenolate mofetil and oral corticosteroids in patients with active lupus nephritis (LN). At 24 weeks, 57…
Ann Marshak-Rothstein, professor of Medicine and Rheumatology at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical School, received the 2016 Lupus Insight Prize for promising research to improve the treatment of the lupus-related skin disease called cutaneous lupus. The award was announced at the recent 16th Annual Meeting of the Federation of Clinical…
A bill recently moved forward by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on labor, health human services and education for 2017 includes $6 million for lupus research and education, in addition to $34 billion for medical research overall at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Specifically, the committee bill supports funding for the…
Regen BioPharma has identified small molecules that activate NR2F6, an immune checkpoint recently identified by the company. This is the first step in a series of initiatives to develop small molecules the biotech will use as the basis to create an oral drug with potent anti-inflammatory properties, or a checkpoint inhibitor pill.
A bill recently passed by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee includes critical funding for lupus research and education. The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) thanks the committee for supporting the funding bill, which has moved to the full Senate for consideration. If the bill is approved, it would bring an additional $6 million…
Researchers at New York University School of Medicine discovered that an enzyme’s failure to digest the DNA from dying cells can trigger the production of the auto-antibodies that are the hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The findings were published in Cell, in a study titled “Digestion of Chromatin in…
Mallinckrodt PLC presented the first results from its two-part pilot study’s 44-week open label extension period, on the efficacy of H.P. Acthar Gel, a repository corticotropin injection, in persistent systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Acthar is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for flares, or for maintenance therapy, in…