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Probing the bowels
of disease
July 2012
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
TORONTO—For decades, patients who suffer from inflammatory
bowel diseases (IBD)
have mostly had therapies that address only specific
symptoms of their condition, but a new industry-academia collaboration in
Canada is on a mission
to change that with research aimed at identifying the
underlying disease mechanisms of IBD.
As
patients and the medical community marked World IBD Day
on May 19, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC) and Vertex
Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that they will jointly provide funding for three
Canadian academic centers to further research into the biology of IBD,
specifically its major types, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The
collaboration is a unique in that it brings together a national healthcare
charity and a biotechnology company in Canada, which has a high incidence
and
prevalence rate of IBD.
"The burden of IBD is enormous in Canada. Over 200,000
Canadians are
affected by IBD, and the burden to our healthcare system is
great," says Aida Fernandez, chief science and education officer at the CCFC.
In fact, in 2008, the CCFC released its report, "The Burden
of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada," which found
that IBD was almost as
prevalent in Canada as epilepsy or diabetes. In 2008, costs covered by Canada's
healthcare system—expenses like
hospitalization, surgery, medications and
physician visits—were estimated at $753 million. Other significant expenses are
not covered by the healthcare
system—items like emergency visits, lab work and
consultations with nurse practitioners, dieticians and social workers—and it's
estimated that IBD
incurs more than $1 billion every year in indirect costs
like short- and long-term work absences, productivity losses and caregiver work
absences.
For Canadians and patients worldwide who suffer from IBD,
treatments are usually limited to the use of
anti-inflammatory steroids to
control disease flares as well as surgery such as bowel resection,
strictureplasty or a temporary or permanent colostomy
or ileostomy.
"Whatever we can do in terms of improving treatment options
and quality of life for
patients is very important. That's why we're funding
this important, vital research," says Fernandez.
Founded in 1974 by a group of parents whose children were
diagnosed with IBD who were concerned about the lack of funding for IBD
research, the CCFC
is now considered a world leader in IBD research funding,
but the organization also focuses on raising awareness of IBD as a chronic
disease and
addressing issues related to patient access to expensive IBD medications.
Of particular concern to CCFC is advancing the understanding of the biology of
IBD in the hope that life-altering treatments can be found.
"Ultimately, we want to have
something come out of these
research projects that will improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind
IBD, something that is translatable and can
lead to a drug target, that takes
us to the next level of something that can be commercialized," says Fernandez.
"Sowing early seeds in this endeavor
are important, and this is a strong
investment in getting the right expertise."
To make this
happen, the CCFC has chosen to partner with
Vertex, which is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., but also has facilities in
Laval, Quebec, as well as in
the U.K. and San Diego. The company has more than
45 scientists focused on IBD research. Vertex also has preclinical and clinical
programs for cancer,
multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C, cystic fibrosis,
epilepsy, Huntington's disease, tuberculosis and influenza.
"Our interest in IBD is to do something that is
transformative—to work at the core of the disease, and not just treat the
symptoms," says Dr. Louise Proulx, vice president and site head of Vertex
Canada. "We really believe this is going to take a network approach. We can
't
do everything in-house, and that's why we have chosen to work and collaborate
with academic institutions."
The academic research centers in this collaboration were
selected after a rigorous peer-review process. CCFC and Vertex then
chose three
laboratories that are focused on probing the underlying biology of IBD: Dr.
François Boudreau of the Université de Sherbrooke; Dr. Brian Coombes of
McMaster University; and Dr. Scott Gray-Owen of the University of Toronto.
"There are
over 100 genes linked to IBD," notes Fernandez.
"The fact that we know this is leading to a more comprehensive understanding of
this complex disease.
There is now a real momentum in personalized medicine and
an investment of research in this area. Knowing which genes people carry will
help us to
customize treatments for them."
The projects will investigate the role of bacteria in IBD
and
the body's response to an imbalance of these bacteria in order to identify
potential targets for future IBD therapies.
"One of the things we hope to learn more about is how this
bacteria enters the body. Can we prevent entry by using a small-molecule,
for
example? In two years, we hope to have a better understanding of the disease,
which will give us new approaches to finding compounds," says
Proulx.
The labs will each receive $200,000 in two rounds of grant
funding over the course of the
two-year collaboration.
"We hope to do another round of applications this summer,
and then fund up to
another three new institutions," adds Proulx.
"Being able to work closely with other world-class
scientists at Vertex and CCFC represents a promising new model for medical
research," said Scott Gray-Owen, who is a professor of molecular genetics
at
the University of Toronto. "We're excited to have been chosen for this grant
because it provides an opportunity to advance our understanding of a
disease
that affects so many Canadians."
The burden of IBD in
Canada
Afflicting nearly 201,000 persons in Canada in 2008,
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is more common than multiple sclerosis or HIV,
about as common as epilepsy or type 1 diabetes and somewhat less common
than
rheumatoid arthritis or schizophrenia.
The total cost of IBD in Canada in 2008 was at least $1.8
billion. This is composed of direct
medical costs ($753 million, or 41 percent
of total costs) plus indirect societal costs ($1.06 million, or 59 percent of
total costs). The average
per-person cost is just over $9,000 per year.
Total costs are higher for Crohn's disease (CD) due
to
greater patient numbers. Per-person costs are also higher for CD, due to more
frequent hospitalizations and more costly medications: $9,950 per
person per
year for CD and $7,900 for ulcerative colitis.
From "The Burden of
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in
Canada," Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada, 2008 Code: E071208 Back |
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