Samir Parikh, MD: A Promising New Treatment for Lupus Nephritis

Zetomipzomib showed a favorable safety and tolerability profile and led to clinically meaningful reductions in proteinuria and improvements in different systemic lupus erythematosus biomarkers for patients with lupus nephritis.

In data presented during the 2022 American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Annual Meeting in Orlando, a team of investigators led by Samir V. Parikh, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, presented new data from a 17 patient study on zetomipzomib.

In the phase 1b/2, open-label study, the investigators found the treatment was safe and well tolerated and resulted in improvements in both disease activity measures and biomarkers.

In the phase 2 MISSION study, the investigators treated patients once weekly with zetomipzomib 60 mg subcutaneously for 24 weeks. At the conclusion of treatment, 64.7% (n = 11) of patients achieved an overall renal response measured as 50% or greater reduction in UPCR compared to baseline, while 35.3% (n = 6) of patients achieved a complete renal response.

In the safety analysis, the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate, with 1 serious adverse event identified related to the treatment. However, there were no discontinuations because of drug-related adverse events and no opportunistic infections reported.

Parikh explained in an interview with HCPLive® how promising the treatment is and what are the future plans to study it in the future.