Author Archives: Steve Bryson PhD

A lower, 100 mg dose of Nucala (mepolizumab) is equally effective at treating eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) as the standard 300 mg dose, and leads to less frequent adverse events, or AEs, a large European study showed. These findings suggest that a lower monthly dose of Nucala…

ChemoCentryx has filed an amendment to its application seeking approval of avacopan, an investigational therapy for the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). The filing addresses the issues raised by an advisory committee of independent medical experts during a recent meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug…

Using lower doses of prednisolone in combination with Rituxan (rituximab) resulted in similar rates of remission and fewer adverse events than Rituxan plus higher doses of the glucocorticoid in treating ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). Those were the findings of a Phase 4 clinical trial in Japan that examined the effects…

The likelihood of developing ANCA-associated vasculitis rises significantly among people living near quarries that extract quartz with silica, a data analysis from France reported.  Its findings also support silica exposure as a specific environmental risk factor for this disease. …

A committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — which provides the agency with non-binding recommendations from independent medical experts — has narrowly supported the approval of avacopan for the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). In the final segment of a public meeting,…

Serious infections occur more frequently in people with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis who have higher disease activity at diagnosis, a real-world, long-term study showed. Moreover, most serious infections occur during the first year after the ANCA vasculitis diagnosis, the study found.

Vasculitis UK has granted £53,364 (about $73,500) to support a research project investigating how people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and other vasculitis respond to COVID-19 vaccines.  Led by Lucy Fairclough, PhD, an associate professor at Nottingham University, in the U.K., the project seeks to…

Changes in autoantibodies that target the protein PR3 in people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) may help predict sustained remission following treatment, and eventual disease relapses, a study found. The research also shows that the ALBIA method, which is becoming widely…

A group of proteins that modulate immune responses, called heat shock proteins (HSPs), are significantly elevated in the kidneys of people with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), and their levels are associated with poorer kidney function and organ survival, a multi-year study found.  These…

Low levels of the protein alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) do not appear to be enough to increase the risk of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — despite prior associations of AAT deficiency with AAV — according to a new study.