Yedida Y Bogachkov PhD,  —

People carrying a genetic variant of the gene coding for Mucin 5B — a component of lung mucus and needed for cellular function — are at increased risk of developing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to a recent study. In this variant, the nucleotide guanine, one of the building…

Treatment with Ofev (nintedanib) was found to prevent the progression of both cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in a 75-year-old woman with a history of smoking who was diagnosed with IPF and diffuse squamous cell lung cancer, a recent case study reported. Nevertheless, researchers noted that “scientific data…

Anti-fibrotic medications, such as Esbriet (pirfenidone) and Ofev (nintedanib), are not cost-effective treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in the U.S. due to their high prices, even though they remain the only effective therapies, according to a recent study. The study, “Cost-effectiveness of the anti-fibrotics for…

If left untreated by anti-fibrotic medications, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has a 50% mortality rate after three years, according to a recent observational study using real-world data. This is compared with a 26–31% mortality rate among IPF patients taking available anti-fibrotics, such as Esbriet (pirfenidone) and Ofev…

A $5 million gift to the University of South Florida (USF) from the philanthropist and entrepreneur Timothy Ubben will be used to create the Ubben Family Center for Pulmonary Fibrosis, dedicated to disease research. The center will be located at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa. This…

AstraZeneca has added a novel target for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to its portfolio, which was uncovered using BenevolentAI’s artificial intelligence-driven medication discovery platform. “The cause of IPF is largely unknown and the exact mechanisms involved in the progression of IPF remain elusive,” Anne Phelan, PhD, chief scientific…

AdAlta announced that AD-214, its candidate treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), has been successfully made into an aerosol for inhalation — a nebulized form — while retaining the molecular properties that supported its potential effectiveness in preclinical studies. “The results of these studies support AD-214 being delivered by…

The Microbiome Therapeutics Innovation Group (MTIG), a coalition of companies working to develop U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-microbiome-based therapies, announced the addition of Alveolus Bio to its group. Alveolus has more than a decade of research into neutrophilic inflammation — an asthmatic inflammation driven by specific white…

Note: This story was updated Oct. 22, 2021, to correct information about the study that was wrongly identified as a different clinical trial. A new study is hoping to identify early drivers of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) in individuals with a family history of PF, with the goal of…