Great News to Start My Day

I checked email this morning, and read some great news. We are even closer to a new lupus drug! That might not be very exciting to some of you, but that news made a huge smile break out across my face. I wrote about the first clinical trial here, and was thrilled then because there hasn't been a drug released to treat lupus in more than FIFTY years.

This new drug, called Benlysta, isn't available to the public yet. But now it's one step closer to being available after the completion of a second clinical trial. The next step is for the pharmaceutical companies to submit marketing applications in the U.S., Europe and other locations during early 2010. I have no idea what all that means and even less of an idea how long that might take.

But the beauty of it all can be summed up in one word: HOPE. To know that there is some sort of relief on the horizon for lupus patients gives my heart tremendous hope. There are 1.5 million Americans with lupus, and 5 million worldwide. I'm one of them. How awesome it would be to have a drug that might slow the disease in my body!