AstraZeneca's experimental lupus drug fails to meet main goal in study

AstraZeneca’s experimental drug anifrolumab failed to meet its main target in a late-stage clinical study treating patients with moderate to severe lupus, the British drugmaker said.

AstraZeneca said the drug did not meet the main goal in the final stage of one of the two clinical trials under the TULIP program, failing to show “statistically significant” reduction in disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly known as SLE.

Anifrolumab, which is given intravenously, is designed for patients with moderate to severe lupus and works in a different way to GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta by targeting interferon, a protein involved in inflammation.