Study Results Show Epratuzumab Provided Clinically Meaningful Reduced Disease Activity in Patients ...( Encouraging Clinical Data Present...),Health

Encouraging Clinical Data Presented at American College of Rheumatology (ACR) meeting Show Reduced Need for Concomitant Corticosteroid Therapy

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UCB (Euronext Brussels: UCB) announced data from two randomized controlled trials showing that treatment with epratuzumab a humanized anti-CD22 antibody, resulted in clinically meaningful reduced disease activity, improved health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measurements and reduced reliance on corticosteroids compared to placebo treatment in patients with active moderate and severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). These findings were presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting here today.

"Given the debilitating effect lupus has on a patient's quality of life, these results are encouraging," commented lead study investigator Daniel J. Wallace, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. "In these trial results, treatment with epratuzumab demonstrated clinically meaningful improvement in patients' flares and significant decrease in steroid use, which is critical given their long-term adverse effects."

"While medical advances have improved the lives and survival of people with lupus, effective therapeutic options remain limited," said Sandra C. Raymond, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Lupus Foundation of America. "It has been nearly five decades since a new treatment was approved for this devastating and life altering disease and current treatments are limited with adverse effects though recent research efforts to find new treatments are encouraging for the millions of people around the world living with lupus."

In the combined studies, beginning at week 4 and continuing through week 48, Total BILAG* scores, a clinical measure of lupus disease activity, in both epratuzumab treatment arms (360 or 720mg/m2) remained lower than placebo. Among study participants who comp
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