102012Development of a new treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThis project aims to deliver an advanced candidate drug for the treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (sometimes refered to as emphysema or chronic bronchitis) – a highly debilitating condition that affects more than 200 million people worldwide and leads to over 6 million early deaths every year. The consequent social, economic, and health-care burden is huge. Treatment for COPD usually involves relieving the symptoms, for example by using drugs delived through an inhaler, or supplementary oxygen, to make breathing easier. However the novel therapeutic mechanism that will be pioneered by this programme can be more conveniently taken as a tablet, rather than inhaled, and will target the processes that cause the disease, which should significantly slow - or even halt - its progression. These key aspects differentiates this approach from that of existing drugs, and of many other experimental treatments.