New day for nephrons

Updated data on Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s voclosporin suggest the calcineurin inhibitor could get more lupus nephritis patients into remission faster than current therapies while reducing reliance on toxic standards of care. But first the company needs to show that an imbalance in mortality in Phase IIb testing was due to chance.

Previously reported data from the 265-patient Phase IIb AURA-LV study suggested that when voclosporin is added to standard of care, it can induce remissions in a greater proportion of patients than SOC by itself, even as patients dramatically reduce their use of steroids...