The  second day of AAAAI 2012 was again full of clinically-relevant sessions and papers, and one of the hot topics being discussed was the effectiveness of immunotherapy in asthma. This has proven to be one of the more contentious areas of debate among our KOLs. 

Previous research showed that one major unmet need in asthma is the lack of effective treatment for severe uncontrolled asthma, and all KOLs in Europe and the US expressed their frustration about this situation. 

The oral and poster sessions of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) 2012 Annual Conference kicked off on Saturday, and there have already been numerous presentations of new evidence that are likely to impact clinical practice. However, among the multitude of papers, we have chosen to focus on a poster that will likely intensify the ongoing debate about whether the combination of inhaled corticosteroid therapy and long-acting beta-2 agonist (ICS/LABA) should be used as initial maintenance therapy.

Welcome to Part 2 of Sociable Pharma’s preview of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology 2012 Annual Meeting. In our first preview blog, we highlighted some of the ‘must-see’ papers being presented that may have an impact on clinical practice and the competitive landscape in asthma.

In this part of the preview, we will continue our analysis, focusing on the three remaining themes: optimizing the combined therapy of inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-2 agonists; the effectiveness of immunotherapy; and developments in asthma and COPD pipelines.

Welcome to Sociable Pharma’s preview of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology 2012 Annual Meeting, a conference that will be full of insightful presentations to address the challenges facing doctors in the treatment of asthma.

With the input of our KOLs, Sociable Pharma has identified six key clinical practice themes that will feature prominently at the upcoming event and which we will cover in this preview blog.

For each theme, we have identified some ‘must see’ papers that we believe will likely have a major impact on clinical practice.

The final day of the ACR 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting kicked off with an interesting review of the entire conference with the main themes covered having been touched upon in Sociable Pharma's previous blogs. One of the hot issues during the meeting has been the overall inflammatory burden and related cardiovascular disease. 

The third day at the ACR 2011 Scientific Meeting included a number of presentations on two key issues: the systemic inflammatory burden of RA; and novel drugs currently in development.

Inflammatory burden in RA 

Welcome to Sociable Pharma's post from of Day 2 of the 2011 ACR Scientific Meeting. In this post, we review a number of key presentations that deal with two important issues: cardiovascular co-morbidities and an update to the ACR guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Cardiovascular co-morbidities  

The 2011 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Scientific Meeting kicked off on Sunday, and in this post we review a number of presentations. These fall into three categories: new oral therapies (primarily tofacitinib); remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and biomarkers.

New oral inhibitors: Tofacitinib

Welcome to Sociable Pharma’s preview of the upcoming American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2011 Scientific Meeting, a congress that will address the important challenges facing doctors in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Day 3 of DDW was again full of new, potentially practice-changing evidence. The day started with the Clinical Science Plenary session during which data was presented from the first prospective randomized trial comparing the use of cyclosporin and infliximab in patients with severe acute ulcerative colitis that had failed to respond to intravenous corticosteroid treatment. The study was designed to show the superiority of cyclosporin, i.e. that patients failed less frequently on cyclosporin therapy than on infliximab. It was estimated that 60% of patients would fail treatment on infliximab.