German research-based drugmakers outline arthritis ambitions

'By 2013, Germany's pharmaceutical industry aims to have developed 10 new drugs to treat rheumatoid disease,' says Cornelia Yzer, general manager of the VFA, the trade body representing the country's research-based drugmakers, in a statement marking World Arthritis Day (October 12) and the release of a report stressing the inequalities of treatment around Europe for the condition (The Pharma Letter October 13).

'These drugs should improve the range of treatments and help patients who have not responded to current therapies,' she noted. Several of the drugs contain substances that tackle inflammation (in joints/connective tissue), the hallmark of most rheumatoid disease, in new ways. The diseases in question include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and the spinal infection Morbus Bechterew - the inflammation of joints in the spine.

Rheumatic therapy has made great strides in recent years. Rheumatism sufferers' sick days off work have halved since 2001, according to the German Rheumatism research center in Berlin. This is largely due to genetically-engineered drugs, which now account for 53% of drug sales in the field of rheumatology - more than in any other area of medicine, according to 'Medicinal Biotechnology in Germany 2009,' a study by Boston Consulting Group. Most of the drugs to be developed by 2013 also come from the industry's genetic engineering laboratories.