I had my first migraine in middle school. Over a decade later, I was prescribed a cocktail of drugs—my saving grace. I could finally take hold of my life, and I no longer held on to an ever-present worry that my migraines could steal days of my time and derail what I was working toward.
I had an ideal experience: Diagnosis was possible, treatment was possible, and my response was positive. Unfortunately, many people with “untreatable” diseases face the same debilitating physical menace of their illness, yet lack the opportunity for objective diagnosis and lack treatment options.
An example is my grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 10 years ago and progressed significantly about five years ago. Without access to disease-modifying treatments, my family watched her slip away.
To ensure that disease-modifying treatments will someday exist for today’s untreatable diseases, we need to optimize processes that occur before patients get to doctor’s offices by addressing three key problems: the approach to identifying a drug target, understanding a drug’s impact and the approvals process.
Read on to learn how Pepper is changing drug discovery.
Source: Forbes // See original post here.