Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is using Lupus Awareness Month to get its message about screening and treatment to a wider audience. The drugmaker will play a part in meetings across May, including an event in New York where its celebrity spokesperson Toni Braxton will discuss life with lupus.
Aurinia won approval for the lupus nephritis drug Lupkynis in 2021 and signed Grammy Award-winning singer Braxton as a partner last year. Braxton, who came on board after Aurinia missed its sales target for 2022, worked to amplify the company’s original marketing message that “Peeing in a cup sucks. But kidney failure is way worse.”
Braxton, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2008, is speaking at an event in New York Wednesday as part of her partnership with Aurinia. The session is included in a broader Lupus Call to Action Day. Aurinia, which recently began a rheumatologist awareness campaign, plans to attend meetings in other parts of the U.S. later in the month.
The advocacy and education initiatives support Aurinia’s three-part plan for growing Lupkynis sales. As the company has said on earnings calls, educating healthcare providers on the need to screen and treat more aggressively and activating patients to discuss screening and treatment with their physicians are two pillars of the strategy. Differentiating Lupkynis from rival drugs is the third part of the plan.
“Our messaging reinforces the importance of routine urine screening, the seriousness of the threat of lupus nephritis progressing and the critical need to start and stay on treatment” Aurinia CEO Peter Greenleaf said on an earnings call in February. “We deliver these messages through a mix of highly targeted social and digital initiatives as well as in-person advocacy events.”
The activities helped Aurinia grow net product revenue by 53% last year and begin to recover from the lackluster Lupkynis launch. Having driven net product revenue up to $158.5 million last year, the company is aiming to hit $200 million this year. Aurinia spared its commercial team from the 25% reduction in head count it announced in the first quarter.