Benlysta Benefits Lupus Patients in Drug Trial
- By BSTQ Staff
Benlysta, an experimental lupus drug from GlaxoSmithKline chemically known as belimumab, significantly reduced patients’ symptoms in a recent drug trial. Conducted by Human Genome Sciences Inc., the 865-patient study, known as Bliss-52, found that a higher dose of Benlysta started benefiting patients 16 weeks into the trial, and improvement was sustained for both a higher and lower dose from weeks 24 and 28, respectively, for the duration of the 52-week test.
Patients in the study received one of two doses of the drug or a placebo. At a lower dose, 51.4 percent of patients showed improved symptoms, compared with 43.6 percent who took the placebo. At a higher dose, 57.6 percent had improved symptoms. Symptoms included pain, hair loss and skin rash.
Approximately 320,000 lupus patients in the U.S. are managed by rheumatologists, and about two-thirds of those patients (those who have stopped responding to standard therapies) would be candidates for the drug.