Analysis Showing LUPKYNIS is a Cost-Effective Treatment for Lupus Nephritis Presented at National Kidney Foundation’s Spring Clinical Meeting 2024

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH) (Aurinia or the Company), today announced the presentation of results from an updated cost-effective analysis of LUPKYNIS (voclosporin), a second generation calcineurin inhibitor (CNI), at the annual National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Spring Clinical Meeting 2024 taking place in Long Beach, CA, May 14-18. The Company will also share additional data from its AURORA clinical program.

Economic modeling by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in March 2021 demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of LUPKYNIS in adults with active lupus nephritis (LN). An updated cost-effectiveness analysis demonstrated that LUPKYNIS continues to be a cost-effective treatment for lupus nephritis (LN). Cost-effectiveness was assessed with the ICER Analytics^TM LN model and the majority of model assumptions from the original analysis were consistent with the 2021 analysis. Updated inputs in this new analysis included the 2023 cost of LUPKYNIS, the duration of treatment for people who did not respond to treatment, and the cost of treating LN patients with end-stage kidney disease.

LUPKYNIS is substantially below ICER’s willingness-to-pay threshold of $150,000 in adult patients with active LN. The incremental cost of the treatment was $88,076 per quality adjusted life year (QALY) and $77,643 per equal value of life year gained (evLYG) in patients with active LN.

ICER uses a common set of cost-effectiveness thresholds for all assessments, including those for treatments of ultra-rare disorders, providing a uniform range of results from $50,000 to $200,000 per QALY and per evLYG for all assessments. The QALY is the standard for measuring how well various medical treatments lengthen and/or improve patients’ lives, and therefore the metric has served as a fundamental component of cost-effectiveness analyses. To complement the use of the QALY, ICER’s reports also include a calculation of evLYG, which evenly measures any gains in length of life, regardless of the treatment’s ability to improve patients’ quality of life.

Moreover, in a smaller subgroup analysis of Black, Hispanic, and Latino patients — a population disproportionately affected by LN — cost-effectiveness was on par with other interventions for diabetes, blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia. The incremental cost of the treatment per QALY was $77,436 and was $67,828 per evLYG in Black, Hispanic, and Latino patients.