Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ Lupkinis therapy shows efficacy in lupus nephritis

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (AUPH) announced that a post-hoc analysis of the 52-week, Phase 3 AURORA 1 study showed that lupus nephritis, or LN, patients who received triple immunosuppressive therapy with Lupkinis – voclosporin -, mycophenolate mofetil – MMF -, and low-dose glucocorticoids achieved lower proteinuria targets at substantially higher rates compared to patients in the control group who received MMF and low-dose glucocorticoids alone. The analysis assessed the achievement of urine protein creatine ratio, or UPCR, targets of less than or equal to 0.4 g/g, less than or equal to 0.3 g/g, less than or equal to 0.2 g/g, and less than or equal to0.1 g/g in LN patients treated with Lupkinis-based triple immunosuppressive therapy compared to patients in the control group. Of the 357 patients in AURORA 1, 60.9% in the triple immunosuppressive therapy group achieved a UPCR of less than or equal to 0.4 g/g at least once during the study compared to 37.1% of patients in the control group. Patients in the triple immunosuppressive therapy group also achieved higher rates of all other UPCR targets compared to patients in the control group. Adverse event rates were comparable in both groups. This analysis builds upon a previous analysis of AURORA 1 in which patients who received triple immunosuppressive therapy with Lupkinis achieved significantly greater improvements in total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol compared to those in the control group.