Innovative Therapies Continue to Advance Treatment Efficacy

Scientific advancements are moving the healthcare industry forward. New, innovative tools and therapy options are helping providers accurately diagnose and treat myriad conditions, from common illnesses and rare diseases. For the millions suffering from all kinds of ailments, the changes are welcome, as they are increasingly opening doors to treatment options that can significantly improve quality of life. However, there are both significant opportunities and considerable challenges to meeting patient needs.

Treatments for rare diseases were historically few and far between, as their development was hindered by low potential return on investment. However, orphan drugs (pharmaceuticals that target only a very small population of people with rare diseases) now account for 50 percent of new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As we explain in our article “The Future of Orphan Drugs: Advancements, Challenges and Hope” (p.18), scientific breakthroughs combined with patient advocacy and regulatory incentives led to this growth. Today, orphan drugs are increasingly improving the quality of life for the patients they serve.

The hope of an improved quality of life is often enough for a patient to choose experimental and sometimes even controversial therapies. We delve into one such treatment option in our article “Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy: The Future of Healing?” (p.22). Platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy is a unique method of using a patient’s own plasma to stimulate healing. PRP is used primarily to help ease chronic pain, and clinical evidence appears to be favorable for treatment of inflammatory responses associated with osteoarthritis of the knee. Although PRP has been available for nearly 30 years, regulations, protocols and dosing standards vary, and it lacks definitive studies confirming its efficacy. Still, demand for the controversial treatment continues to grow even as providers aren’t certain how to counsel patients about its risks versus reward.

Uncertainty in healthcare leaves both patients and providers frustrated. Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a case in point: This rare autoimmune disorder puzzles providers, since it affects relatively few people and hides behind symptoms common among many other rare neurological conditions. As we explain in our article “The Proven Success of Immune Globulin Therapy to Treat Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy” (p.26), the path to appropriately treating CIDP isn’t an easy one, but in many cases, patients are seeing their quality of life increase with the proven use of immune globulin therapy.

As always, we hope you enjoy the additional articles in this issue of BioSupply Trends Quarterly, and find them both relevant and helpful to your practice.

Helping Healthcare Care,

Patrick M. Schmidt
Publisher