Efficacy and safety of sequential therapy with subcutaneous belimumab and one cycle of rituximab in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: the phase 3, randomised, placebo-controlled BLISS-BELIEVE study

Ann Rheum Dis 2024;0:1–11 DOI 10.1136/ard-2024-225686.

Aranow et al. evaluated the efficacy and safety of combining subcutaneous belimumab with one cycle of rituximab in SLE. Sequential therapy did not show a statistically significant improvement in disease control over belimumab monotherapy, but did achieve nominally better reductions in disease activity markers.

The study determined whether sequential treatment with belimumab and rituximab could improve disease control in SLE patients while minimising the use of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, using stringent disease control endpoints.


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