MedImmune To Present New Data On Autoimmune Drugs At ACR 2014

AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm MedImmune announced that it will be presenting new data for five of its drugs being developed for inflammation and autoimmune diseases at the upcoming American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2014 Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Key highlights will include positive Phase 3 data on lesinurad for the treatment of gout, as well as earlier stage data on mavrilimumab in rheumatoid arthritis and brodalumab in psoriatic arthritis. New findings on sifalimumab and anifrolumab in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) will also be included.

Data from the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials CLEAR1 and CLEAR2 investigating lesinurad as combination therapy with allopurinol in patients with symptomatic gout will be presented. Lesinurad is a selective uric acid re-absorption inhibitor (SURI) being developed for 40 to 70 percent of patients with gout who are unable to reach target levels of serum uric acid (sUA) with current treatments.

Sifalimumab and anifrolumab, which targets IFN-α and the type 1 IFN receptor respectively, are being studied in a Phase 2B trial involving patients with moderate-to-severe lupus. Positive safety and efficacy results together with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data will be reported at the meeting.

Positive results from the Phase 2B EARTH EXPLORER 1 study investigating mavrilimumab in moderate-to-severe adult-onset rheumatoid arthritis will also be presented at ACR. Mavrilimumab is a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) that targets the GM-CSF receptor, a key pathway that drives the rheumatoid arthritis disease process. Lastly, positive data from the open label extension of a Phase 2 study investigating the long-term safety and efficacy of brodalumab in patients with psoriatic arthritis will be presented at the meeting. Brodalumab is a human anti- interleukin-17A (IL-17A) receptor under development for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, among other disorders.

Briggs Morrison, EVP of Global Medicines Development and CMO at AstraZeneca, said, “The breadth of research we will present at ACR… is an excellent demonstration of our pipeline delivering promising molecules with the potential to address difficult-to-treat diseases including gout, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis.”

Concurrent with the announcement, AstraZeneca together with its partner Amgen reported positive results from the second pivotal Phase 3 study of brodalumab in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.