America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies are developing 234 medicines for the special health care needs of children, according to a new report released today by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
“Our researchers, who lead the world in pharmaceutical innovation, are working on new treatments to fight a wide range of major diseases and medical disorders that afflict children all over America,” said PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin. “Our companies’ targets include childhood cancer, the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 5 and 24, and an array of genetic disorders, including cystic fibrosis, a debilitating and fatal condition that affects 30,000 children and adults in the United States.”
The new Medicines in Development for Children report was unveiled today at Trinity Moline by PhRMA Senior Vice President Ken Johnson. He stressed that biopharmaceutical research companies are key contributors to today’s steady progress against childhood diseases.
Today, because of major treatment advances, 80 percent of children diagnosed with cancer will survive five years or longer, compared to a five-year survival rate of less than 50 percent 30 years ago. Progress has also been made against childhood pneumonia.
According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, pneumonia deaths among children dropped 97 percent between 1939 and 1996, thanks in part to antibiotics that prevent deaths from not only pneumonia, but also scarlet fever and other diseases that used to claim the lives of children.
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