More MS news articles for Dec 2001

PhRMA Survey Finds 176 Medicines in the Pipeline for Neurological Diseases

http://www.phrma.org/press/newsreleases//2001-12-17.318.phtml

December 17, 2001

A new survey found 176 new medicines in development for neurologic diseases - up from 138 when the previous survey was conducted in 1999. More than 100 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are conducting this research, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

"Pharmaceutical company researchers are using significant new knowledge about how the brain works to help patients with Alzheimer's, stroke, Parkinson's and other diseases," said PhRMA President Alan F. Holmer.

The potential new medicines include:

24 for Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts nearly half of all Americans 85 and older;

34 for brain tumors, 21 of which are being developed by the National Cancer Institute either on its own or in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies;

16 for multiple sclerosis, which affects 350,000 to 500,000 Americans, most of them women;

41 for pain, which causes 4 billion lost work days per year, a $79 billion drain on our economy;

16 for Parkinson's disease, which affects 1 out of every 100 Americans over age 60;

9 for epilepsy, which affects more than 2 million Americans;

14 for stroke, which strikes someone in the U.S. every 45 seconds;

10 for migraine headaches, which affects about 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Other medicines being developed target amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), head injuries, Huntington's disease, neuropathies, sleep disorders, spinal cord injuries, lupus and other diseases. All of these medicines are either in human clinical trials or awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"These new medicines, and the pharmaceutical industry's continuing investment in research on diseases of the central nervous system, are grounds for hope that some of the cruelest of human afflictions may have better treatments and, one day, cures," said Holmer.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country's leading research-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Investing more than $30 billion in 2001 in discovering and developing new medicines, PhRMA companies are leading the way in the search for new cures.