Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in autoimmune diseases, announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization of LUPKYNIS® (voclosporin) to treat adults with active lupus nephritis (LN), a serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved LUPKYNIS on January 22, 2021, in combination with a background immunosuppressive therapy regimen to treat adult patients with active LN.
The centralized marketing authorization is valid in all European Union (EU) member states as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Northern Ireland.
The EC approval of LUPKYNIS is based on the results of a Phase 3 AURORA 1 study and the recent AURORA 2 continuation study, which demonstrated voclosporin, in combination with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and low-dose corticosteroids, led to statistically superior complete renal response rates at 52 weeks compared to MMF and low-dose corticosteroids alone. The safety profile of voclosporin and MMF and low-dose corticosteroids was generally comparable to MMF and low-dose corticosteroids alone.