AstraZeneca has announced a European Union (EU) approval for its Saphnelo (anifrolumab) medicine as an add-on therapy for the treatment of adult patients with moderate-to-severe, active autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), despite receiving standard therapy, a company statement said.
It said that the approval by the European Commission was based on results from the Saphnelo clinical development programme, including the Tulip phase-III trials and the Muse phase-II trial. Across clinical trials, more patients treated with Saphnelo experienced a reduction in overall disease activity across organ systems and achieved sustained reduction in oral corticosteroid (OCS) use compared to placebo. Minimising OCS use while reducing disease activity is an important treatment goal in SLE to reduce the risk of organ damage. The approval follows the recommendation by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency in December 2021.
Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said in the statement, “Saphnelo is the first new medicine for systemic lupus erythematosus to gain approval in Europe in over a decade, and is the only biologic not restricted to patients with a high degree of disease activity. Saphnelo has demonstrated clinically meaningful benefits and we look forward to bringing it to patients as quickly as possible.”
The most frequent adverse reactions that occurred in patients who received Saphnelo in the controlled clinical trials included upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, infusion-related reactions and herpes zoster, added the statement.
Saphnelo was recently approved in the US, Japan and Canada for the treatment of SLE, and regulatory reviews are ongoing in additional countries. The phase-III trial in SLE using subcutaneous delivery has been initiated and additional phase-III trials are planned for lupus nephritis, cutaneous lupus erythematosus and myositis, the statement concluded.
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