Next week, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a new medicine from Aurinia Pharmaceuticals that will be used to treat patients with lupus nephritis, a serious autoimmune kidney disease.
If the decision goes Aurinia’s way, the oral drug called voclosporin will be the first commercial product developed successfully by the drug maker, founded in 1993 and based in Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada.
Aurinia will reveal voclosporin’s brand name upon approval, which is expected on or before Jan. 22.
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Important to note voclosporin would be the only oral drug in this segment, a huge advantage vs IV MABs
Fun fact: Aurinia was originally founded as a company called Isotechnika and was only renamed Aurinia when the team behind Aspreva took over the company in 2013 to reposition voclosporin for patients with LN, hence the relatively short original patent life. To that end, I think the 1993 founding date is a bit of a misnomer, as the current incarnation of the company launched about seven years ago.