Saphnelo
An intravenous biological therapy used to treat moderate-to-severe systemic lupus erythematosus.
Where Anifrolumab is approved
All regulators →Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Anifrolumab was the US, on 30 Jul 2021. It is approved in 3 of the 3 regulators tracked here.
From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.
What health systems spend on Anifrolumab
All medicines →From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.
How Anifrolumab works
All drug targets →- Interferon-alpha/beta receptor alpha chain antagonist AntagonistTarget: IFNAR1 interferon alpha and beta receptor subunit 1✓ In ChEMBL and the Guide to Pharmacology
- Cutaneous lupus erythematosusPhase 3
- DermatomyositisPhase 3
- Lupus nephritisPhase 3
- PolymyositisPhase 3
- Systemic sclerosisPhase 3
- Antiphospholipid syndromePhase 2
- Hidradenitis suppurativaPhase 2
- Ovarian cancerPhase 2
- Rheumatoid arthritisPhase 2
- VitiligoPhase 2
Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL2364653, CC BY-SA 3.0. Targets checked against the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (2026.3), ligand 8258, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.
NICE appraisals of Anifrolumab
All NICE appraisals →NICE, which decides whether the NHS in England should fund new medicines, has published 1 technology appraisal of Anifrolumab. 1 is current.
| Appraisal | NICE recommendation | Published | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anifrolumab for treating active autoantibody-positive systemic lupus erythematosus (terminated appraisal) NICE TA793 | Terminated (no company submission) | 8 Jun 2022 | Current |
NICE decisions apply to the NHS in England. In Ireland the HSE decides on reimbursement, advised by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. Titles, categories and dates link to the guidance on nice.org.uk. © NICE 2026 technology appraisal guidance. Available from www.nice.org.uk/guidance. All rights reserved. Subject to Notice of rights. NICE guidance is prepared for the National Health Service in England. All NICE guidance is subject to regular review and may be updated or withdrawn. NICE accepts no responsibility for the use of its content in this product/publication.
Patient leaflets for Anifrolumab
The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.
- IEIreland: 3 products on the HPRA listEach product record links to the HPRA, which publishes the leaflet and SmPC.
- EUEuropean Union: SaphneloEMA product information: package leaflet and summary of product characteristics in every EU language.
- UKUnited Kingdom: Search MHRA ProductsPatient information leaflets and SmPCs for UK-licensed products.
- USUnited States: Search DailyMedFDA-approved labels, including patient and medication guides.
Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.
What Saphnelo is used for
Anifrolumab (Saphnelo) is an intravenous biological therapy used to treat moderate-to-severe systemic lupus erythematosus. It belongs to the Type I interferon receptor antagonist class.
Related clinical trials recruiting now
Explore more
How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 7 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.