July is a month of celebration at our house. Though it begins with the Fourth of July, my personal “Independence Day” is on July 10 — the day I received a double-lung transplant in 2021. It’s a celebration tempered with reverence for the beautiful lungs my donor gifted me.
Celebrating independence 2 years after my double-lung transplant
A Phase 3 trial of pamrevlumab, an experimental therapy from FibroGen to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), failed to meet its primary goal of slowing lung function decline. General safety and tolerability were seen in treated patients in ZEPHYRUS-1 (NCT03955146), which tested 48 weeks of pamrevlumab’s use…
Insilico Medicine made its entry into Phase 2 clinical testing with INS018_055, a small molecule it discovered and designed using artificial intelligence (AI), as a potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Patients have now received the first dose of oral INS018_055 in a randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2…
Adversity is something rare disease patients face on a regular basis. It can take many forms, but it often involves facing a challenging situation or doing something against all odds. When I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in January 2017, I don’t think I had any…
A new, potentially disease-specific imaging agent may one day allow doctors to identify pulmonary fibrosis (PF) in earlier stages, when the start of treatment can be more effective, according to a study in a mouse model of the disease. Called 64Cu-GPVI-Fc, the agent — coupled with positron emission tomography…
Researchers in the U.S. turned a special type of mouse stem cell into green, glowing lung cells in the lab and now have a limitless supply they can use as a model to study how pulmonary fibrosis and other lung diseases develop. “Our study has implications for the study…
Not having control over a situation is one of the worst feelings; I wouldn’t wish it on anyone! Unfortunately, many patients living with chronic illness often feel this way, and we just have to learn to live with it. Following my 2016 diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF),…
What choices do you have when you have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and lung transplant isn’t an option? I’ve been told by more than one patient that they were told to go home and spend the time they have left enjoying a rocking chair on the porch. Whether that is actually what they…
I always try to find meaning and purpose in the smallest of things, and that practice led me to a realization the other weekend. I was trying to nurse back to health one of our hens, which had become ill in the past month. We did everything we could to…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light for Mabwell Therapeutics to launch a clinical trial testing 9MW3811, its injectable treatment candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and cancer, according to a company press release. Last month, the National Medical Products Administration in…
