Roche’s Genentech is backing this year’s Walk to End Lupus Now, taking up a sponsorship opportunity claimed by GSK in previous years.
The Lupus Foundation of America organizes the nationwide program each year to boost awareness and raise money for research, education, advocacy and support programs. As presenting sponsor of this year’s program—which will comprise walks in dozens of U.S. cities throughout the year—Genentech will help the nonprofit drive progress in lupus care and expand essential resources, it said in this week’s announcement.
The sponsorship “affirms our commitment to partnering with the lupus community in the fight for improved care,” Girish Mulye, head of Genentech Immunology, said in a statement, adding, “We walk for awareness and to turn scientific potential into impact for every person affected by this disease.”
The new partnership follows the approval last fall of Genentech’s anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody Gazyva for the treatment of lupus nephritis. Having also racked up a phase 3 win in systemic lupus erythematosus, Roche estimates Gazyva sales in immune-mediated diseases could peak around 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion).
Genentech has made a point of engaging with patient groups as part of its push into lupus, including in an ongoing partnership with Black Health Matters. Its support for the Lupus Foundation of America moves the company into space once occupied by GSK, which served as sponsor of many of the annual Walk to End Lupus Now events, including virtual versions in 2020 and 2021, as well as several in-person iterations before and since.
GSK became a leading player in the lupus market after winning FDA approval for Benlysta in 2011. Last year, Benlysta sales rose (PDF) 22%, and Nina Mojas, Ph.D., president of global product strategy at GSK, said on an earnings call last month that 82% of bio-naive patients in the U.S. are now starting on the med.
Genentech, meanwhile, could drive Gazyva sales by competing with Benlysta for first-line patients and providing an alternative for nonresponders to GSK’s incumbent drug. At a Roche event this month, Richard Furie, M.D., chief of rheumatology at Northwell Health, noted that “clinicians will want to use [Gazyva] upfront without having to fail other drugs” and that he plans to switch patients failed by Benlysta to Roche’s treatment.