News alert: According to the last Pharma R&D 2017 Review, Respiratory Drugs the only group decreasing

Pharma R&D 2017 Review, presented recently new drugs by Therapy Groups. Cancer at the top increasing 20%, Respiratory Drugs the only group decreasing.
It is a huge paradox, in the time when we have the progressive increasing of prevalence and mortality of chronic respiratory diseases!!!

Respiratory diseases are STILL among the leading causes of death worldwide.  

Lung infections (mostly pneumonia and tuberculosis), lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) together accounted for 9.5 million deaths worldwide during 2008, one-sixth of the global total. The World Health Organization estimates that the same four diseases accounted for one-tenth of the disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost worldwide in 2008.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study recently compared the contribution of major diseases to deaths and disability worldwide for 1990 and 2010. Among the leading causes of death, lower respiratory infections were ranked 3rd in 1990 and 4th in 2010, whereas COPD was ranked 4th in 1990 and 3rd in 2010. Lung cancer rose from 8th- to 5th- commonest cause of death, while tuberculosis fell from 6th to 10th position in the ranking.

The GBD Study also presented rankings for years lived with disability, among which asthma ranked 13th worldwide in 1990 and 14th in 2010, while COPD ranked 6th in 1990 and 5th in 2010. When premature deaths and disability were combined as DALYs  lost, lower respiratory infections were ranked the leading cause worldwide in 1990, and the 2nd most important cause of DALYs lost in 2010. Also among the 25 most important causes were COPD (ranked 6th in 1990 and 9th in 2010), tuberculosis (ranked 8th in 1990 and 13th in 2010) and lung cancer (ranked 24th in 1990 and 22nd in 2010).

1st Eurasian Respiratory Summit 2014

I would like to share with you my experience and impressions about the 1st Eurasian Respiratory Summit, which took place in Istanbul, Turkey at 21-23 November 2014. The main topics of the Congress were:

Scientific Topics

• Recent Developments in Asthma

• Recent Developments in COPD

• Practical Applications in Pulmonary Diseases 1

• Pediatric pulmonary Diseases

• Developments in Lung Cancer Treatment

• Interstitial Pneumonopathy

• Recent Therapeutic Approaches in COPD

• Cochrane Compilation in Pulmonary Diseases

• Severe Asthma Diagnosis and Treatment

• Pleura Diseases

• Pulmonary Hypertension

• Occupational Pulmonary Diseases

• Practical Applications in Pulmonary Diseases 2

• Interventional Endobronchial Applications

• Smoking as a Global Health Concern

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

• Pneumonia

Interactive Round-table Meeting Topics

• Approaches to Serious Asthma Patient

• Challenges in COPD Treatment

• WH-Questions in Pneumonia

• Guide to Asthma-Rhinitis

• Allergen Spesific Immunotherapy

The conference was attended by a wide range of professionals (more than 200 persons) such as industry leaders, university academics and researchers from all the regions including Turkey, Middle East, Asia, North Africa and Europe. It was high level meeting, the speakers were world known leader in Respiratory medicine from 11 countries.

Finally we would like to thank the 1st Eurasian Respiratory Summit Scientific committee and its President Professor Bulent Tutluoglu, Turkey for a successful Conference and remarkable annual organization which allowed taking part in different discussions, to acquire useful information and to establish relations with international specialists.

My presentation from

Healthy Lungs for Life 2014 campaign in the best traditions of the Year of the Lung 2010

Respiratory Decade joins Healthy Lungs for Life campaign and will support it actively via our Respiratory blog and our Respiratory facebook groups and pages! 

In 2010 was started very ambitious initiative YEAR OF THE LUNG. YEAR OF THE LUNG was the most important and the most successful Respiratory campaign which emphasized the importance of public awareness about respiratory diseases. Speaking at the European Launch, Professor Nikos Siafakas, European Respiratory Society President 2010, said that the most respiratory diseases are both preventable and treatable, treatment however is very costly, and effective prevention policies in the EU and worldwide are severely lacking”.

Healthy Lungs for Life is one of the largest ever lung health campaigns, raising awareness of the importance of healthy lungs to healthcare professionals, scientists, primary care, patients, policy makers and the public through a full range of events, projects and promotional activities. In 2014, the theme is "Breathe clean air". 

Healthy Lungs for Life seeks to reduce the number of people suffering from respiratory disease by raising awareness and knowledge of lung conditions and ways to prevent lung damage.

In 2014, Healthy Lungs for Life aims to:

• Increase knowledge of the impact of poor air quality on lung health
• Raise awareness of the actions that everyone can take to protect their own lungs from indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Organizers said: We are inviting respiratory professionals and the public from across the globe to join us in this campaign and we can help you by providing resources and materials to host your own events. We are also holding a number of events to coincide with the European Respiratory Society International Congress 2014 across Munich and at the Congress centre itself. The more people supporting and taking part in events, the more powerful the messages will be.

First EU summit on Chronic Diseases (3-4 April 2014)

Chronic diseases affect the sufferer over a long period of time and generally progress slowly. Some of them – cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, mental illness – represent leading causes of mortality.

Tackling four major risk behaviours – smoking, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle – can help prevent many chronic diseases. But to be effective, such efforts need to be based on targeted health promotion, prevention and early detection.

To efficiently address the challenge of chronic diseases, an integrated, horizontal approach is essential – involving all the relevant levels, from communities to policy makers.

Social and environmental determinants also play an important role in the development of chronic diseases, and there is a clear inequality in the burden of such conditions and in the access to prevention and control.

This first EU summit on chronic diseases will discuss medical, social and economic benefits of sustainable investments in health, ways to reduce the burden of chronic diseases, and how to strengthen the prevention and management of chronic diseases, with a focus on EU added value and action.

The first EU summit on chronic diseases brings together key policymakers, stakeholders and interest groups to explore ways to address chronic diseases effectively in the EU and to develop recommendations along the following questions:

1. How does the expanding burden of chronic diseases affect the quality of life of citizens, the competitiveness of economies and the cohesion of societies and what can the EU do about it?
2. How can the pressure of the expanding burden of chronic diseases on health systems be reduced and how can available resources be invested in the most efficient way?
3. Which prevention measures are the most cost-effective in the short and in the long term, and how could they be implemented? How should the EU and its Member States promote their implementation? Which risk factors need to be addresses more efficiently?
4. How do the health and care systems need to change to respond to the ageing challenge and growing phenomena of frailty and multi-morbidity?
5. How to best reach, include and empower the most vulnerable and marginalised people successfully in prevention and care strategies?
6. How could the European Union support Member States’ attempts towards containing the chronic disease burden? Which EU action would provide most added value – in economic, social and political terms?

 

The summit will develop Conference conclusions and a set of policy recommendations for action clarifying on how the medical, social and economic burden of chronic diseases should be tackled in the European Union now and in the years to come

2014 Guidelines on Severe Asthma

Dear friends I am happy to share with you new Guidelines on Severe Asthma which was published in European Respiratory Journal last week!

Severe or therapy-resistant asthma is increasingly recognised as a major unmet need in Respiratory medicine at the global level. A Task Force, supported by the European Respiratory Society and American Thoracic Society, reviewed the definition and provided recommendations and guidelines on the evaluation and treatment of severe asthma in children and adults. 

It is hoped that the current emerging understanding of the immunopathobiology of severe asthma, of biological agents and of emerging inflammatory and molecular phenotypes will generate and lead to safe and effective biomarker-driven approaches to the therapy of severe asthma. 

Kian Fan Chung, Sally E. Wenzel, Jan L. Brozek, Andrew Bush, Mario Castro, Peter J. Sterk, Ian M. Adcock, Eric D. Bateman, Elisabeth H. Bel, Eugene R. Bleecker, Louis-Philippe Boulet, Christopher Brightling, Pascal Chanez, Sven-Erik Dahlen, Ratko Djukanovic, Urs Frey, Mina Gaga, Peter Gibson, Qutayba Hamid, Nizar N. Jajour, Thais Mauad, Ronald L. Sorkness, and W. Gerald Teague
International ERS/ATS guidelines on definition, evaluation and treatment of severe asthma Eur Respir J 2014 43:343-373; published ahead of print 2013, doi:10.1183/09031936.00202013