Bowel disease drug for Crohn's disease

Drug for inflammatory bowel disease

06/01/2014

Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany suffer from the chronic inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Although they are not curable, but to treat. A Japanese pharmaceutical company has now received EU-wide approval for a new drug to treat the disease.

Incurable bowel disease
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory bowel diseases that cause similar symptoms and both are not curable. According to press reports, over 320,000 people in Germany are said to be suffering. Especially young adults are affected. Even if the age peak is between the ages of 15 and 40 years, the diseases can occur at any age. The diseases are not curable, but can be treated. Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda has now received EU-wide approval for Entyvio (vedolizumab) for the treatment of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The drug is expected to be available from August in Germany on the market. The US Food and Drug Administration recently gave the green light.

Similar symptoms make discrimination difficult
The two diseases can cause very similar symptoms and are thus difficult to distinguish. Nevertheless, few main symptoms are differentiated. Both forms of intestinal disease progress in spurts, but may also be chronically active. In the acute episode of ulcerative colitis, the main symptom is bloody bowel movements, which often result in mucous congestion or diarrhea. There is constant urgency, sometimes with abdominal pain, fever and general physical weakness. In Crohn's disease, especially abdominal pain occurs, often diarrhea, which is then associated with weight loss and deficiency symptoms. Due to the loss of blood in the inflamed areas, in both cases it can lead to treatment-poor anemia with fatigue and fatigue.

New drug with side effects
The new drug from the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Japan can be used in adult patients with moderate to severe disease who have inadequate response to, or intolerance to, conventional therapy and other biologics. In two randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled studies with a total of 2,300 patients, the efficacy had been demonstrated. But there are still massive side effects. Thus, nasopharyngitis, headache and arthralgia are very common. It can also cause bronchitis, cough, upper respiratory tract infections and many other conditions. Although the results from the clinical program to date indicate that the manufacturer does not believe there is an increased risk of malignant disease, long-term safety reviews would continue. (Ad)