"Filling The Medicine Cabinet" - Victoria Houghton
Ten years ago, Emma Guttman, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was knocking on doors in an attempt to garner interest from pharmaceutical companies in atopic dermatitis research. “I really tried to convince these companies to go for atopic dermatitis, but no company wanted to hear about it,” said Dr. Guttman. Although roughly 15 to 20 percent of children and 4 to 7 percent of adults suffer from atopic dermatitis worldwide, at the time all eyes were on the psoriasis space, added Dr. Guttman. Today, things are different. “Now many of these companies gradually became interested in atopic dermatitis. It’s a more heterogeneous disease with different phenotypes and we are starting to learn that there may be no one-size-fits-all approach to treating the condition.” This understanding is shaping the development of potential treatment options for this heterogeneous condition.
- Emma Guttman, MD, PhD, The Sol & Clara Professor, Dermatology, Clinical Immunology, Medicine, Vice Chair, Research, Department of Dermatology, Director, The Center for Excellence in Eczema, Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai