UCB's lupus trial fails in final clinical tests

BRUSSELS, July 28 (Reuters) - Belgian pharmaceutical group UCB said that its phase III trial for lupus treatment epratuzumab failed to produce statistically significant results in both dosages tested.

UCB had licensed epratuzumab from U.S. biotech firm Immunomedics for clinical development and commercialization in all autoimmune disorders.

While UBC did not specify what it would do with the epratuzumab programme, it said that it had other lupus treatments under development.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease, affecting 5 million people worldwide, in which the body's immune system attacks healthy organs.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, editing by Louise Heavens)

Advertisement