VAP-1: Targeting leukocyte infi ltration for infl ammatory disease

Inflammatory disease

Inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, are chronic conditions that usually start in early adulthood and have a huge physical and social impact on patients and their families. Moreover, the health economic burden to society is very high, largely due to medical costs (treatment and hospital stays) and working days lost.

Current treatment of chronic infl ammatory diseases tends to be staggered. Patients with early stage disease typically are treated with a combination of steroids, immunosuppressants and pain killers, mainly addressing the symptoms of the disease. As their disease progresses, later stage patients are gradually treated with more potent drugs, such as TNF-alpha inhibitors and other products, which are categorized as biologicals. These biological agents have demonstrated in clinical studies that they have the potential to modify the long term disease process, but there is significant variability in response to these agents and some patients do not benefi t from these products.

Given the serious nature of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis and the high proportion of patients not receiving adequate treatment from current medicines, there is a signifi cant need for products with a novel mechanism of action, improved safety profi le and disease modifying efficacy.

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Updated March, 2010