The Best of the Best: Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs to Save Lives in 2015

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With thousands of new medicines and devices in development for the treatment of an array of conditions and illnesses, the life science industry spends upward of $50 billion per year on research and development. Out of that mix, the esteemed Cleveland Clinic has developed a "Top 10" list for 2015. Drawn from a panel of 110 of the Clinic's top experts, the following innovations scheduled for release in 2015 were judged to have the biggest impact on patients.

The 2015 Top Ten Medical Breakthroughs
1. Mobile Stroke Ambulance
The most critical time to treat a stroke patient is within the 60 minutes following the event. At a cost of $1 million per unit, the vehicles offer complete stroke treatment, equipped with a CT Scan, broadband link to neurologists enabling rapid diagnosis, and the correct medication with which to treat the patient. There have been positive results following Cleveland's initial use of such a vehicle, with data showing patients are getting life-saving therapy twice as often as they would using traditional methods, and four times as fast.

2. Dengue Fever Vaccine
Dengue fever, considered the fastest-growing of all mosquito-borne tropical diseases, infects more than 400 million people each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although rarely occurring in the United States, it has recently spread to Japan, India and the Pacific Islands, and has become prevalent in Puerto Rico. There also have been reported small outbreaks in Florida and Texas. Developed by French drugmaker Sanofi, the vaccine, which in clinical trials cut the risk of getting the disease by more than 60%, expects Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval within the first half of 2015.

3. Cheap, Fast and Virtually Painless Blood Collection
A new "needle-free" method for blood collection has been developed by Theranos (Palo Alto, California). Through a proprietary process, a micro sample of blood is taken from a finger and stored in a small container for testing at one of the company's labs. The goal of the technique is to reduce the pain, time, cost, and errors of conventional blood testing. Theranos can perform up to 30 tests on a single micro sample, which is 1/1,000, the size of a typical blood draw, at a fraction of the cost of traditional blood testing. Results for everything from standard blood work to genetics testing can be available within hours, rather than days. The current diagnostic blood testing market, dominated by Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) and Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH), generates $75 billion per year in revenue.

4. PCSK9 Inhibitors for Cholesterol Reduction
Heart disease is by far America's number-one killer, with more than 600,000 deaths annually. Elevated levels of certain forms of cholesterol, a soft, waxy substance present in cells throughout the body, is one of the primary drivers in the development of coronary heart disease. The existing statin drug course of treatment often fails to reduce these levels. A new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, PCSK9 inhibitors, is similar to statins, yet completely unique. Not only are LDL cholesterol levels reduced dramatically, they are dropped to super-low levels never seen before. The race is on by partners Sanofi and Regeneron be the first to receive FDA approval later this year.

5. Antibody-Drug Conjugates
Currently, chemotherapy--with its ability to damage and destroy cancer cells, but also harm surrounding healthy cells--is still the only form of treatment available for some cancers. There is now a new class of potent drugs called antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), designed to treat certain advanced cancers that have spread to other parts of the body. Two dozen ADCs are in advanced development that show high anti-tumor activity, while avoiding damage to normal tissue. One approved ADC, trastuzumab emtansine, already has shown excellent results in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

6. Checkpoint Inhibitors
The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which work by targeting molecules that serve as checks and balances in the regulation of immune responses, is a promising avenue of immunotherapeutic research into cancer treatment. Two drugs are already FDA-approved for metastatic melanoma, with three more approvals expects by the end of 2015. There is now increasing evidence that checkpoint inhibitors can work on a growing number of types of malignancies, including lung, kidney, bladder, ovarian, and head and neck cancers.

7. Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker
The adult heart usually beats between 60 and 100 times a minute at rest, but if a person has bradycardia, a slower-than-normal heart rate, it indicates a problem with the heart's electrical system. To overcome this problem, millions of Americans rely on a surgically implanted cardiac pacemaker. The current device has pacing lead that serves as a conduit for the delivery of energy. The new wireless cardiac pacemaker is 10% the size of the traditional pacemaker. In the space of 15 to 30 minutes, the miniaturized battery-controlled device can be implanted directly in the heart, without surgery, by steering it through a femoral vein and up into the heart's right ventricle. The pacemaker technology has eliminated surgery, lumps and scars on patient's chest, restrictions on daily physical activities, as well as any complications stemming from any malfunctioning insulated connecting leads.

8. New Drugs for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a disabling disease for which there is no treatment, short of replacing the lungs, that can remove the scarring within the lungs, slow its progression, or cure it. Life expectancy after diagnosis is usually three to five years. Now, new hope for IPF patients comes in the form of two new drugs. Pirfenidone, a novel antifibrotic and anti-inflammatory agent and nintedanib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, significantly slow the progress of IPF. Two new drugs, just recently approved for use in the U.S. by the FDA, have shown in large international studies to significantly slow the progress of IPF.

9. Single-Dose Intra-Operative Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, in 2014, there were more than 230,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer among U.S. women, along with 63,000 new cases of noninvasive breast cancer, the earliest stage of the disease. An estimated 40,000 women died from the disease. For many of the women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the course of treatment calls for lumpectomy, which only removes a portion of the affected breast. After the procedure, follow-up external beam radiation therapy is traditionally given to the entire breast approximately five times a week, over the course of three to six weeks, to reduce the likelihood of the cancer from returning to that area.

Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) removes much of the danger and hassle of current protocols. In IORT, high doses of radiation are delivered during the lumpectomy procedure, concentrating only in the cavity where tumors were removed, rather than being administered to the entire breast multiple times following traditional lumpectomy, which minimizes both side effects and tissue damage. There are significant cost savings, as well as being more convenient for patients.

10. New Drug for Heart Failure
A weakening of the heart's ability to pump blood is the cause of heart failure. More than 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S., and the condition accounts for 55,000 deaths annually. Unfortunately, only 25% of those diagnosed are alive after 10 years. While there is no cure, a patient's condition often can be improved with the use of medical and device therapy. The current therapeutic "gold standard" is the consistent use of ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors, which dilate blood vessels and allow the heart to function more efficiently along with the beta-blockers. This has cut the risk of dying from heart failure in half.

Now, a new drug, called an angiotensin-receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), has proved in testing to be at least 20% more effective than ACE inhibitors. ARNI has the potential to save more lives and reduce long-term health costs. In addition to being regarded a major advance in drug treatment therapy, ARNI is looked at as a complete change in heart failure treatment. The stunning results spurred the FDA to grant "fast track" status to ARNI, which is expected to be available in 2015 in the U.S.

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