Thought leaders indicate Benlysta has advantages over market leader CellCept for Lupus

Surveyed US rheumatologists and managed care organization (MCO) pharmacy directors agree that reducing disease activity is one of the attributes that most influences their decisions regarding prescribing and formulary status determinations, respectively, in moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), excluding severe active renal and severe active CNS manifestations.

Clinical data and the opinions of US thought leaders interviewed by health care advisory firm Decision Resources indicate that intravenous belimumab (Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta) has advantages over sales-leading mycophenolate mofetil (Roche/Galenica’s CellCept, generics) on this attribute.