Tuesday 4 December 2007

It is better to get Chrones Disease in 2007 than in 1987

Affecting nearly 1 million people around the world, Chrones disease is a chronic inflammation of the bowel and intestines. People who have Chrones disease often have diarrhea and abdominal pain. About 80% of people with Chrones disease will also eventually will face some sort of surgery to remove damaged portions of bowel.

Having said all that, there is some good news, as the science finally catches up with chrones disease with modern treatments like anti-inflammatory medications called TNF blockers which have had very good results for many patients.

Two new chrones disease drugs are about to hit the market, so things could and should soon improve further for Crohn's disease patients.

In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended approval of the drug called Tysabri as a medication for Chrones disease. Tysabri is already used for treating patients with multiple sclerosis. This recommendation will allow the FDA to move toward approval of Tysabri for Chrones.

The second new drug is called Cimzia, which was effective at treating about one-third of 1,330 patients with moderate to severe Chrones disease in testing. As well as this, 62% of the chrones patients who responded to Cimzia continued to benefit from the treatment after 6 months. The Belgian company who is developing Cimzia is planning to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee soon.

So there is hopefully some good news on the horizon for Chrones Disease sufferers.