Targeting the Immune System a Profitable Strategy

(Amherst, NH) – Drugs based on immune modulation - a class that includes cytokines, lymphocyte receptors, signaling enzymes, antibodies and transcription factors - have demonstrated the capability to effectively treat a host of diseases that had previously been considered to be intractable. These therapeutic immune modulation drugs, which include several multi-billion dollar drugs such as Avonex, Remicade and Enbrel, have had a major impact in reducing patient morbidity and mortality for several disease classes. The result has been growing interest in this therapeutic approach to disease.

Currently more than forty companies are pursuing drug development programs based on immune factors and signaling proteins. Therapeutic drug candidates based on immune factors currently in development include a diverse range of cytokines, immune cascade elements, and regulatory factors. These potential future drugs are targeting a spectrum of chronic and/or progressive indications that individually and as a group represent an enormous level of patient morbidity, mortality and diminished quality-of-life. In addition to a growing list of autoimmune and oncology indications, targeted therapeutic applications for pipeline immune factor drug candidates include infectious diseases, hereditary conditions, and metabolic diseases.

We expect pipeline immune factor drugs that will be launched over the next four years to have a dramatic effect on the treatment and economics of more than a dozen disease classes. These findings are contained in a new and comprehensive report: Immune Factor Drugs: Targets, Technologies and Therapies.

More information is available at www.greystoneassociates.org .

About Greystone

Greystone Associates is a medical and healthcare technology consulting firm providing services in strategic planning, venture development, product commercialization, and technology and market assessment.

Contact:

Mark Smith
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Fax: 603-804-0466
www.greystoneassociates.org

Source: Greystone Associates