Frost On Opportunities In Quality-Of-Life Therapies

Opko Health has created a dedicated R&D team to explore solutions for conditions that impair patients' quality of life.

“We know what the big challenges in medicine are today – aging, mentation and the brain functions that distinguish us from animals come readily to mind. But my interest is increasingly centered on less scientifically challenging conditions for which an available treatment can improve a patient’s basic quality of life. We’ve established a separate dedicated team of biologics experts at Opko to consider what we can do on the R&D front to create some measurable progress in this area.”

A prime area of investigation is overactive bladder in women in its most severe forms, such as the condition known as interstitial cystitis, which affects more than 200,000 women in the US and is characterized by acute bladder pain with near constant urges to urinate – the lifestyle impact is so severe nearly half of its victims require psychiatric treatment. We plan to initiate a trial on a drug to control the overproduction of a chemical which runs rampant in this condition. Another problem of interest to me as a dermatologist is itching of the skin, which in the case of many patients on kidney dialysis is quite severe. Fresenius, our partner on the Rayaldee franchise, is joining with us to study a drug candidate to relieve this unpleasant side effect of a necessary procedure, where any improvement measurably affects the ability of patients to live a normal life.”