Business And Legal News In Brief
Executive Summary
Positive top-line results for Roche's CellCept: Roche and Vifor Pharma announced June 3 that CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil) demonstrated superiority to azathioprine (AZA) in delaying treatment failure in patients with lupus nephritis during the maintenance phase of the Aspreva Lupus Management Study, one of the largest ever conducted in lupis nephritis. Vifor Pharma will report full results at the International Congress on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus June 24-27. Late last year, positive data from a second Phase III trial of Human Genome Sciences/GlaxoSmithKline's lupus candidate Benlysta generated attention, but FDA has not approved a new treatment for the disease in more than 50 years, leaving stakeholders awaiting the next market entrant (1"The Pink Sheet" DAILY, Nov. 2, 2009)