Lupus Research Institute Inc

Launching the Next Decade in Innovative Research

In 2012, the LRI set aggressive five‐year research goals to continue to encourage creativity and prudent risk‐taking while it simultaneously mounts a major global initiative to transform lupus research.

Major Goals:

1. Launch a major global initiative to harness current knowledge to address the fundamental root causes of lupus and work for a cure

2. Expand the drive for discovery across the full spectrum of disease.

3. Grow the scientific knowledge base to create new understanding of lupus and autoimmunity.

4. Emphasize novel studies in human lupus biology.

“The LRI’s approach effectively advances novel concepts to be furthered by subsequent large-scale funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and to expand the possibilities for new drug development that can help patients.”
-- William Paul, MD, chair of the LRI Scientific Advisory Board.

With generous support from donors, the LRI’s strategic commitment to scientific innovation has produced unprecedented and tangible results in private sector lupus scientific progress.

The Lupus Research Institute’s distinguished 19 member Board of Directors includes lupus patients and family members, representatives from major state lupus organizations, lay leaders of the lupus community, scientists, and clinicians. The LRI's dedicated staff, which includes our President and CEO, Research Director, and Grants Administrator, are assisted by its volunteer Board of Directors and a 12-member Scientific Advisory Board. In addition, the LRI’s national Novel Research Task Force of 76 medical and scientific professionals with experience in lupus volunteer their time to review novel research grant applications as well as evaluate the progress of current grantees.

The LRI advances collaboration and strategic partnerships with other scientific and research organizations, annually participating in national and international meetings, conferences, and working groups in order to advance common goals. With close to 40 companies at different stages of developing new lupus treatments and approximately 30 products in clinical trials, the LRI also proactively reaches out to the pharmaceutical industry to build partnerships to advance lupus research and accelerate the development of new treatments. In June 2013, the LRI convened 12 leading pharmaceutical companies and formed the LRI Industry Council, a forum for industry collaboration in a pre-competitive space. The LRI’s advocacy network, the LRI National Patient Coalition, joins forces with local and state lupus organizations to raise awareness and garner support for issues vital to the lupus and research community.

LRI 2012 IMPACT REPORT

OVERVIEW OF RESULTS

--The percentage of grants that were successful in attracting extended funding and/or resulted in published findings has increased from 80 to 84%.

--A comparison of headline metrics reported in the 2010 Impact Review shows that performance overall has been maintained or improved upon.

--From 2001 to 2009 LRI invested $28.1M in 102 grants.
--68 (67%) of the 102 grants have attracted follow-on funding to continue research initiated as part of the LRI grant.
--These grants have leveraged $127.8M in extended funding – a 4.5 fold return on investment.*

--233 original research papers were published (excludes review articles). The average number of citations per paper has increased from 33 to 39, indicating that impact of LRI-research continues to grow.

--36% of investigators in classes 2001-2009 were working in lupus for the first time. 78% of those newcomers have remained in the field.

* To date (2013), the LRI’s Novel Research Grant program has awarded a total of $40 million for 138 novel research studies; and our investigators have gone on to win an additional $131 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other sources to extend their innovative work.

TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL IMPACT

Human lupus biology:

--36% of all grants funded to date (classes 2001-2011), and 50% of currently funded grants involved human tissue, blood or genetic material

Commercialization:

--8 patents have been registered or approved, 2 patents licensed
--1 spin-out company formed

Progress towards benefit for patients. Of 102 grants (2001-2009):

--90 projects (88%) remain active.
--68 projects currently involve basic/animal model research only.
--18 projects have progressed to early patient studies.
--2 projects have progressed to drug discovery.
--3 projects have progressed to therapeutic clinical trials
--1 project has progressed to clinical practice

FOR RECENT UPDATES ON THE LRI’S RESEARCH PROGRESS, PLEASE SEE:

http://lupusresearchinstitute.org/lupus-research/major-breakthroughs