Obinutuzumab Provides Two-Year Benefits for Lupus Nephritis

After promising 18-month outcomes in patients with proliferative lupus nephritis, obinutuzumab showed sustained benefits through 2 years of treatment for patients burdened with the rheumatic disease.

In new data from the NOBILITY trial, presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2020, an international team of investigators reported that the type 2 anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody provided significant improvements over placebo when used as an add-on infusion therapy for patients with lupus nephritis over 104 weeks.

Lead author Richard A. Furie, MD, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Northwell Health, and colleagues reported that patients with class 3/4 lupus nephritis treated with mycophenolate, steroids, and infusion obinutuzumab had greater complete renal response (CRR) rates and fewer required new rescue therapy initiations at week 104 than patients treated with standard care plus placebo.

Aside from building on previous durations of sustainability for the monoclonal antibody, the findings also provide Furie and his peers hope for a disease which still faces great unmet needs in rheumatic care.

“In lupus, it’s been incredibly challenging,” Furie told HCPLive®. “We have limited amounts of medicines.”

In an interview with HCPLive during ACR 2020, Furie discussed his team’s newest NOBILITY findings, the potential of obinutuzumab, and what constitutes clinical success in long-term lupus nephritis management.

He noted that reducing proteinuria without worsening patient kidney function has been indicative of long-term clinical benefits. “But in the real world, we’re only achieving that in about one-third of our patients,” he explained.

What the newest data show is that this antibody may finally provide evidence for long-lasting care in this population. And now, Furie said, it’s up to them to deliver similar results in the phase 3 REGENCY trial.

The study, “Two-Year Results from a Randomized, Controlled Study of Obinutuzumab for Proliferative Lupus Nephritis,” was presented at ACR 2020.