It takes around ten years for a new treatment to get clinical trials and achieve marketing approval.

The world is in immediate need of new medicines more than ever before. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed researchers to look for solutions in the fastest way possible. However, the creation of medicine involves a lengthy process and needs clinical and legal approval before hitting the market.

If we take the United States Pharmaceutical industry as an example, it has often been criticized for its slow move towards bringing treatments to market, as it is hampered between academic and commercialization teams, and cumbersome process of regulatory approval. A rough analysis takes around ten years for a new treatment to get clinical trials and achieve marketing approval. However, people’s need for medicine is pushing doctors to fast-track the process. They can’t delay finding new ways to quickly pace the approval when a patient’s life is in crisis. Recently, transitional medicine is taking the mainstream in treating patients desperately seeking help.

What is transitional medicine?

Transitional medicine, also known as transitional medical science, preclinical research, evidence-based research, or disease-targeted research, is the area of research that aims to improve human health and longevity by determining the relevance to the human disease of novel discoveries in the biological sciences. It targets to tie new knowledge and scientific findings from laboratory to clinical practice directly and effectively that is meant to accelerate the path from science to the product, pill, or treatment that can make a difference to the patient.

The term ‘Transitional medicine’ was introduced in the 1990s but only gained wide usage in the early 2000s. The clinical benefits of translational medicine are realized on a timeline measured in decades, whereas applied research aspires to short-term results without the pretense of generating radical breakthroughs.

Lamassu Pharma explores medicine for acute pancreatitis using Translational Medicine

Dr. Gabi Hanna pursued a career in research to develop new treatments for diseases that impact more than one patient at a time, even millions of patients. He worked as a director at Duke Clinical Translational Unit, where he learned the benefits and innovative research coming out of the academia that could be applied to patient care. He recently established his own company named Lamassu Pharma, to explore the role that translational medicine techniques can play in accelerating time to market.

Lamassu Pharma is being developed to fill a critical, unmet clinical need for a treatment for acute pancreatitis, to mitigate the toxicity and organ failure associated with the disease that causes lengthy hospitalization, organ failure, death, and saving lives and resources. The Lamassu team is working towards advancing knowledge of the rare disease and bringing treatment to the market.

The therapy for pancreatitis has been developed based on the knowledge of practicing physicians treating patients, who have recognized that acute pancreatic leads to the release of pancreatic digestive enzymes. These enzymes wreak havoc in the body, and in severe cases, proteases and lipases are activated in a cascading effect, causing massive necrosis and organ failure. There is no available treatment, but based on this knowledge and observations from the clinic, the team plans to conduct clinical trials on the lipase inhibitor identified as a potential treatment by translational medicine researchers familiar with the science, the patient needs, and the disease.

This compound is an injection made directly to the pancreas. Lamassu Pharma hopes the new approach will make a meaningful impact on patients’ lives right away. This is one example of how translational medicine can be applied to real-world medical situations. The company has plans to explore and develop additional treatments for other severe conditions that have no cure today.