Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is running a digital campaign aimed at boosting awareness around a form of lupus that causes kidney disease, and it isn’t shying away from the tough nature of the condition.
The company will show the “highly relatable, although sometimes uncomfortable” situations involved in routine monitoring of lupus nephritis and highlights the importance of protecting the kidneys, according to a press release. The campaign will run primarily on a new, dedicated website but also across social media channels.
Aurinia markets Lupkynis for lupus nephritis. The therapy was its first approved drug, nabbing the FDA nod last year. Lupus nephritis, which half of all lupus patients get, affects the structures in the kidneys that filter out waste. This causes kidney inflammation and can cause high blood pressure, impaired kidney function or even kidney failure, and means patients need constant monitoring.
The new campaign aims to put "these uncomfortable situations into perspective of the possible consequences." This includes its main tagline: “Peeing in a cup sucks. But kidney failure is way worse.”
The hope is that this will help motivate those living with lupus nephritis “to prioritize their kidney health and become empowered to act,” the biopharma added.
People in the U.S. can use the website, www.getuncomfortable.com, to find doctors in their area and schedule appointments. The site, heavily yellow and pink, details “uncomfortable” facts around kidney disease such as swollen ankles and changes in urine.
The website does use Aurinia’s branding at the bottom of the page, though it is set up as an awareness site, with no branding for its drug. There is however a link to “find out more” about a “different treatment option,” which takes you directly to the Lupkynis branded site.
The idea is to have more patients test and monitor for the disease and thus ask about treatments, which should boost overall usage of drugs for the condition.
“Routine testing is critical to managing kidney health, but from both our research and in speaking directly with patients and healthcare providers we have learned that many people regularly cancel or miss their doctor appointments,” said Bianca Jay, senior director of marketing at Aurinia, in the release. “Our campaign is designed to empower patients to prioritize their kidney health by embracing the uncomfortable.”
The patient-focused campaign comes after Aurinia's initial target pre-launch, which zeroed in on rheumatologists and nephrologists—whom Aurinia reps had been talking to and supplying with educational materials—with a disease awareness campaign dubbed "Time Is Nephrons."
Aurinia's nod in January 2021 followed hot on the heels of a go-ahead for GSK’s Benlysta, which received a supplemental biologic license to treat lupus nephritis just the month before, in December 2020. Benlysta was first approved in 2011 and is the sole biologic approved to treat systemic lupus erythematosus.