Anthera Pharmaceuticals Provides Additional Data from the Recently Completed PEARL-SC Study of Blisibimod in the Proposed Phase 3 Population

Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

today announced the final set of clinical data from the Phase 2b PEARL-SC study in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Final data from the PEARL-SC clinical study with 200mg weekly blisibimod suggest sustained and greater treatment effects versus placebo utilizing 6, 7, and 8-point improvements in the SELENA-SLEDAI disease-scoring index (Table 1). In the predefined population of patients with severe disease who were also taking corticosteroids, the SRI-8 treatment benefit in the 200mg weekly blisibimod cohort was seen as early as week eight and achieved statistical significance starting at week 16 (35.4% blisibimod response versus 17.0% placebo response, p=0.04) through the 24 week endpoint (41.7% blisibimod response versus 10.4% placebo response, p<0.001).