Monash welcomes renewed support from Janssen for vital lupus research

A global research effort to improve outcomes for patients with lupus has been accelerated with a major new funding commitment from Janssen Pharmaceutica (Janssen).

Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration presented in Washington, D.C.

L-R: Yeong Song (South Korea); CC Mok (Hong Kong);
Yoshiya Tanaka (Japan); Sang-Cheol Bae (South Korea);
Eric Morand   in Washington, D.C. last month

Head of School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) Professor Eric Morand was an invited speaker at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting last month in Washington, D.C.

Attended by over 10,000 delegates, Professor Morand presented on the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration (APLC) at the Meeting.

The APLC was formed in 2012, and is a collaboration of expert lupus investigators from 16 research centres across Australia, China, UAE, Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

“The APLC is performing the largest prospective cohort study of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ever undertaken,” said Professor Morand, who is also Head of Rheumatology at Monash Health.

“SLE is more common and more severe in Asia but prior to the APLC no one had worked to link the many local registries and clinics.”

“Undertaking SLE research in Asia can expedite our research because of patient numbers and the severity of cases,” said Professor Morand.

Professor Morand said the main study being explored by the APLC is based on validating a definition of a Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) which had been lacking in this field. 

Professor Morand and his colleagues have developed an instrument for measuring treatment response.

“The APLC had multiple posters on their work at the ACR Annual Meeting, and found that several other large cohorts have tested and validated the measure,” said Professor Morand.

“The measure was tested in a major pharmaceutical company database from a clinical trial and found to have excellent discrimination of active treatment against placebos, something the field of SLE has awaited for many years.”

As a result of Professor Morand’s presentation last month in Washington DC, further new sites and countries have requested to join the APLC.

Lupus news: Asia Pacific Lupus Colloboration update

The Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration in Singapore, April 2016

Professor Eric Morand and researchers from the Lupus & Arthritis Group, School of Clinical Sciences, attended the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration (APLC) annual face-to-face meeting last month in Singapore. 

An international alliance, the APLC has established a large international patient cohort, currently the third largest in the world.  With 1671 participants and over 6500 items of data, the APLC is investigating the validation of a new disease target, the Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS). This study has been in progress for more than three years and is likely to continue for the next five years.

Twelve institutions from nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) were represented at the meeting last month.