WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment designed for lupus in a half-century Wednesday.
The decision stands to generate billions of dollars over several years for Human Genome Sciences of Rockville, Md., and its development partner, GlaxoSmithKline.
Federal regulators estimate that 300,000 to 1.5 million Americans have systemic lupus erythematosus and said in a statement that Benlysta, when used in conjunction with other drugs, offers a way to combat a particularly difficult disease.
There is no known cure for lupus, a chronic and often debilitating disease in which a patient’s immune system attacks the body’s organs. Symptoms such as inflammation, pain and tissue damage are typically treated with steroids and immunosuppressant therapies.
The Washington Post
