SPIN White Paper - Lack of approved drugs, an unmet medical need in chronic inflammatory diseases

Introduction

Medical needs in chronic cutaneous immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) include early correct diagnosis, effective short-and long-term and innovative treatments, improving quality of life, addressing different phenotypes and comorbidities, enough access to care and biomarker-guided personalized medicine. Psoriasis (PsO) is a prime example where some of these approaches have been established. Combined efforts by physicians, patients, academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry have greatly improved the standard-of-care.
This was based on research on its pathophysiology beyond the skin, patients' perception, increased public awareness (WHO declaration), development of safer and more effective therapies and post-marketing surveillance. While ‘clear skin’ has become a feasible goal for PsO, progress is on its way in atopic dermatitis (AD) but needs to be replicated in many other IMIDs, such as hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), alopecia areata (AA) or vitiligo (VT).