Watch the LFA's new video, Zero in 50

Lupus Foundation of America Medical Director Dr. Joan Merrill and LFA Medical-Scientific Advisory Council Dr. Gary Gilkeson discuss the barriers to lupus drug development and efforts underway to overcome them and to secure approval of new safe and effective therapies for lupus.

50 Ways We Can
Change the Next 50 Years

We’re providing you some suggestions on how to get involved and bring down the barriers to lupus drug development and support people with lupus.

Here are some ways that you can help raise awareness.

1. Wear a purple wristband to show your support of all people who are living with, or are affected by, lupus.
   
   
2. Invite your family and friends to join the LFA's cause in Facebook.
   


3. Follow the Lupus Foundation of America on Twitter.com/Lupus.org
   


4. Follow what's going on with the LFA, and in the lupus community at large, by reading "On the Road to a Cure," the LFA's blog.
   


5. Join the LFA on MySpace.
   


6. Arm yourself with information. Check out the webchat transcript archive.
   


7. Call Congress and let them know that 50 years is too long to wait.
   
   
8. Donate to fund cutting-edge lupus research.
   
   
9. Send an e-card to raise awareness of the need for new lupus treatments.
   
   
10. Learn more about lupus clinical trials -- visit www.lupus.org/clinicaltrials.
    
    
11. Share your story and tell us what 50 years without a new lupus drug means to you.



12. Thank those who are working to advance lupus research



13. Encourage 50 people to become e-Advocates.



14. Don’t do it alone. If you have lupus, join an LFA support group.



15. Commit to volunteer 50 hours to LFA’s efforts for the next year.



16. Subscribe yourself and a family member to Lupus Now® magazine.



17. Stay up-to-date on lupus research – sign up for LFA's enewsletters.

Zero in 50. Thursday, November, 20, 2008 marked an unfortunate anniversary. It was 50 years ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last approved a drug to specifically treat lupus.

Finding new drugs could offer the promise of hope and a renewed quality of life for many people with lupus. It is heartbreaking to hear from those who have had hip replacements at an early age, men and women who have been forced to stop working, teens who are fearful they will have no future because of lupus, and women who are afraid they can't have families. Read real stories and hear in their own words how they have been affected by lupus.

You can also read the messages of thanks that people living with lupus have written to lupus researchers and pioneers in biotech and pharmaceutical companies who are trying to find the causes of, and cure for lupus.

The LFA is on the front lines of this effort to advance the science and medicine of lupus and to bring down the barriers that have impeded progress in lupus research. With the help of donors, researchers, and friends in Congress, the LFA is making advances toward safer, more tolerable, and effective treatments. In our pursuit for new treatments and a cure we have:

• Convened world lupus leaders to identify, evaluate, and address key barriers to lupus drug development.
  
  
• Led national advocacy efforts to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Congressional funding for a study to clearly establish the number of people living with lupus in the United States.
  
  
• Awarded more than $21 million to fund more than 400 grants to research scientists at nearly 100 leading academic and medical institutions throughout the nation.
  
  
• Successfully advocated for lupus research through the Department of Defense’s Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMP).

We will continue our efforts until a cure is found. We invite you to come back to our website throughout the year to learn more about our efforts and how you can help make a difference and change the next 50 years.

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