For more than two decades, the Arizona Bioindustry Association, Inc. (AZBio), has been championing health innovation and health innovators in Arizona. AZBio is more than a nonprofit organization, it is a community of over 300 organizations that together employ over 350,000 Arizonans. AZBio’s community includes educators, researchers, health innovators, healthcare professionals, business leaders, and community leaders who champion the discovery, development, and delivery of treatments and cures.

MORE NEWS: AZ Big Podcast: Joan Koerber-Walker talks Arizona Bioscience Week

READ MORE: Read the new Arizona Bioindustry Association supplement

Health innovations are being created at a faster pace than ever before. But so much more is needed. The more we learn about disease, the more complex the solutions get. It has been reported that there are over 20,000 health disorders and many of them have no effective treatments. This is especially problematic in the case of rare diseases where over 90% have no effective treatment. The FDA defines a rare disease as a disease that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. It is estimated that 1 in 10 Americans or around 30 million people in the U.S. have a rare disease.

Cures are extremely rare. A cure occurs when a medical condition is completely gone and will never come back. The first hepatitis C treatment was approved in 1991, but it had a cure rate of only about 6%. Today, treatments have improved dramatically, with today’s treatments having a success rate of more than 95%. The CDC estimates that 2.7 million people in the U.S. have chronic hepatitis C. This is the only chronic viral disease that can be completely cured. Hepatitis B does not have a cure. Instead, health professionals recommend a vaccine to help prevent the disease from occurring. 

Tuberculosis (TB), contagious bacterial infection that can affect the lungs and other parts of the body, is an example of a bacterial based disease that can be cured permanently if treated properly with antibiotics. 

SMA, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, is a rare disease caused by genetic mutations in the SMN1 gene. Zolgensma is a gene therapy that can stop the progression of SMA. It works by replacing a nonworking or missing SMN1 gene with a normal one. It is not considered a cure because it can’t reverse damage caused by SMA before treatment.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease that disrupts the body’s ability to convert food into energy. Insulin was discovered in 1921 and was first mass produced by Eli Lilly in 1923 with Novo Nordisk following soon after. In the last 100 years, we’ve made great strides forward in our ability to treat type 1 and type 2 diabetes, facilitated by an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and improvements in insulin formulation and delivery. We have yet to develop a cure or a treatment that can stop or prevent the disease. 

Eradicating a disease means permanently reducing the number of cases to zero through deliberate measures, such as vaccines. Once a disease has been eradicated, intervention measures are no longer needed. The world has only eradicated two diseases. Smallpox was the first disease to be declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Rinderpest, a disease that affected cattle, was declared eradicated in 2011.

Eliminating a disease means there are no instances spreading within the country and new cases are only found when someone contracts the disease abroad and returns to the country. Measles was officially eliminated from the United States in 2000. Measles is highly contagious and still occurs in other parts of the world. Travelers have brought measles back to the U.S. resulting in outbreaks. This year (as of July 25, 2024), a total of 188 measles cases were reported across the country including in Arizona.  For this reason, it is still important that all people who can be vaccinated for the measles do so. 

The most common disease that has no cure

Colds account for more visits to the doctor in the United States than any other condition. In most cases, a cold may last for about a week, but some colds last longer, especially in children, the elderly and those in poor health. These minor infections of the nose and throat are not one disease. Colds are highly contagious and can be caused by more than 200 different viruses. There is no cure for the common cold. Medicines may help alleviate symptoms and promote healing, but it is your immune system that defeats the infection and allows you to recover.

Health innovations

Treatments include medicines, medical devices, procedures, medical interventions, and therapies designed to improve your health and quality of life. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved over 20,000 drugs and biologic medicines as well as over 6,500 medical devices. FDA approval designates that these treatments are safe and effective. Nutraceuticals including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, and botanicals are not FDA approved or evaluated for effectiveness by FDA. Federal law requires manufacturers to ensure nutraceuticals are safe before they are marketed. If it is determined a nutraceutical product is unsafe after it is marketed, the FDA can act.

Medicines, including pharmaceutical drugs, biologics, and vaccines are used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease.

Here in Arizona, Bristol Myers Squibb manufactures Abraxane® a chemotherapy that is FDA approved for the treatment of advanced breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and pancreas cancer. Primus Pharmaceuticals offers four prescription products including a topical product for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and food grade pharmaceutical products that help patients with conditions including osteopenia and osteoporosis, chronic venous disease, and the metabolic effects of methotrexate therapy. Arizona’s drug development pipeline includes AZBio Members Aqualung Therapeutics, Avery Therapeutics, Micro Vascular Therapeutics, NuvOx Therapeutics, PriZm Therapeutics, SLAM Bio, Sonoran Biosciences, and more.

Vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives in the past 50 years based on a 2024 report published in the Lancet. The study looked at 14 different diseases. Children under 5 years of age have benefited most. These medicines protect the body’s immune system against specific diseases, such as measles, influenza, or whooping cough. Vaccines can be administered by injection, orally, or as a nasal spray. New work in vaccines includes the rapid development of vaccines used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other vaccines like the Shingles vaccines that help protect against painful viral skin infections, the new RSV vaccine that is recommended for pregnant women, babies and seniors, and HPV vaccines that protect against a viral infection that is linked to 6 different cancers. 

Here in Arizona, extensive vaccine research has been done at the Biodesign Institute at ASU, at TGen, and at University of Arizona Health Sciences. AZBio Members CSL, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Novartis are some of the leading vaccine producers in the world. Calviri, the 2024 Arizona Bioscience Company of the Year, has recently completed the largest cancer vaccine trial ever completed with dogs and is working on both diagnostics and a vaccine that may help prevent cancers in our four-legged friends and save people’s lives in the future.

Regenerative medicine includes gene therapies, cell therapies, and tissue-engineered products intended to augment, repair, replace, or regenerate organs, tissues, cells, genes, and metabolic processes in the body.

Regenerative medicine aims to alter the current practice of medicine by treating the root causes of disease and disorders.

To date, the FDA has authorized 36 cell and gene therapies. More than 15 new cell and gene therapies are predicted to come to market in 2024, and by 2030, 54 approved cell and gene therapies are expected in the FDA pipeline. 

Here in Arizona, the Meeting on the Mesa will bring leaders in this exciting field to Arizona on October 7-9, 2024. AZBio Members Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, City of Hope, CSL Behring, Gilead, Mayo Clinic, Novartis, Roche, Sarepta Therapeutics, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Vertex Pharmaceuticals have all been involved in this exciting innovation area.

Medical technology (MedTech or medical devices) 

Medical technology includes items, instruments, apparatuses, or machines that are used in the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness or disease, or for detecting, measuring, restoring, correcting, or modifying the structure or function of the body for some health purpose. This broad category ranges from simple bandages to extraordinarily complex devices. 

Here in Arizona, medical device manufacturing is one of our largest employment sectors and includes Anuncia Medical, Becton Dickinson Peripheral Interventions, GE Healthcare, Medtronic, Regenesis Medical, Stryker, SynCardia Systems, W.L. Gore and more. 

Diagnostics are tests used by health professionals to diagnose disease or monitor disease states. Other tests are screening tests that detect irregularities or potential issues, they may not provide answers. Colorectal screening can take the form of colonoscopies, stool tests, and blood tests. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the U.S. among cancers that affect both men and women. In 2024, there will be an estimated 152,810 new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in the U.S. and 53,010 people will die from the disease. Colorectal cancer is treatable in about 90% of people when caught early. Based on medical literature, the majority of screenings have normal results. If something is not normal, further diagnostic tests are performed to determine why. The FDA classifies most diagnostics as medical technologies.

Here in Arizona, we are a diagnostics powerhouse. Sonora Quest Laboratories is one of the nation’s largest integrated laboratory systems and performs more than 97 million diagnostic tests per year. TGen, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, is a world leader in exploring new ways to innovate with omics data and Arizona health innovators Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc., Castle Biosciences, CND Life Sciences, Exact Sciences, and Roche Tissue Diagnostics are ensuring that medical professionals have the information they need to diagnose and treat disease.

Championing health innovation

• Arizona is the place where health innovators are developing and delivering innovations that improve the lives of people in Arizona, across the country, and around the world.

• On September 18, 2024, our community will come together at the 20th annual AZBio Awards to celebrate the people and the companies that make our community so special.