Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has enrolled the first patient in its planned phase IIb clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of voclosporin as a treatment for lupus nephritis (LN). LN is an inflammation of the kidneys, that if inadequately treated can lead to end-stage renal disease, making LN a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. The Lupus Foundation of America believes there are as many as 1.5 million people in the U.S. with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), approximately 40% to 70% of whom will develop LN.

The phase IIb trial, called AURA–LV (Aurinia Urine protein Reduction in Active Lupus with voclosporin) or AURA, is planned to be conducted in approximately 20 countries and is a randomized, controlled, double-blind study comparing the efficacy of voclosporin against placebo in achieving remission in patients with active LN. The AURA study is designed to demonstrate that voclosporin can induce a rapid and sustained reduction of proteinuria in the presence of extremely low steroid exposure and to fulfill specific regulatory requests.

The trial will compare two dosage groups of voclosporin (23.7mg and 39.5mg) administered with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) v. MMF alone. All patients also will receive oral corticosteroids as background therapy. There will be a primary analysis to determine complete remission at week 24 and various secondary analyses at week 48 which include biomarkers and markers of non-renal SLE. The company expects patient recruitment to be completed within approximately 12 months.