Disease
New Medicines To Treat Hundreds Of Diseases
By
Sep 27, 2008 - 1:09:58 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com)-Many patients have already been helped by biotech medicines and vaccines approved for a wide variety of conditions. But with hundreds of new biotech medicines and vaccines now in the pipeline, millions more Americans may have new hope of living longer, healthier lives.

According to a new survey of biotech medicines and vaccines now in development just released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), there are now 633 biotech medicines in the late stages of development to help treat more than 100 diseases. These include 254 new biotech medicines for cancer, 162 for infectious disease, 59 for autoimmune disease and 34 for HIV/AIDS and related conditions. These new biotechnology-based medicines are either in human clinical trials or under review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Biotech medicines provide new ways to both understand disease and new weapons to fight with.

Biotechnology medicines already approved by the FDA include treatments to help prevent heart attack, stroke, multiple sclerosis, leukemia, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, diabetes, congestive heart failure, lymphoma, kidney cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.

These medicines rely on cutting-edge technologies and may take as many as a dozen years and cost nearly $1 billion to research and develop.

The 633 biotechnologies now in the late stages of development promise to push the frontiers of science and bring more and better treatments to patients.

To learn more about the 633 biotechnology medicines now in late stages of development, visit www.PhRMA.org.

For information on biotechnology and how medicines are developed, visit www.innovation.org. Finally, if you or someone you know is uninsured and needs help paying for a prescription medicine, visit the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), sponsored by America's pharmaceutical research companies, at www.PPARx.com (1-888-4PPA-NOW) for information on more than 475 patient assistance programs that provide free or nearly free medicines.

Nationwide, 5 million patients have been helped by the program.

www.HealthNewsDigest.com

© Copyright by HealthNewsDigest.com